(The Center Square) — A former New York federal prosecutor is the latest candidate to seek the Republican Party’s nomination to challenge Democratic Attorney General Letitia James in next year’s election.
Saritha Komatireddy, who has worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York for more than a decade, announced on Monday that she is jumping into the widening GOP field seeking to oust the embattled Democratic incumbent, the New York Post reported.
“I’ve spent over a decade in the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuting the worst of the worst. Terrorists, murderers, fraudsters, and hackers,” Komatireddy, 41, said in her campaign statement. “Now, I want to get the attorney general’s office back to basics — protecting New Yorkers and locking up criminals.”
Under James’ tenure, the AG’s office “has become preoccupied with partisan vendetta, and lost sight of what matters to most New Yorkers,” Komatireddy said.
“If elected, I’ll focus all my energy on the safety of the people of New York – from Bethpage to Buffalo, Staten Island to Saratoga Springs, the people of the Empire State will be able to trust that they have an Attorney General focused on keeping them safe,” she said.
Komatireddy, who served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagugh when he was on the U.S. Court of Appeals, joins a growing field of Republicans running for a chance to challenge James in next year’s midterm election.
To date, Michael Henry, the GOP’s 2022 nominee for AG, and crypto industry lawyer and advocate Khurram Dara, have thrown their hats into the ring. Other GOP hopefuls are expected to join the race.
James, 67, is seeking a third term in the wake of a ruling by a federal judge last week that dismissed an indictment against her for mortgage fraud charges, stemming from her use of a residential property she owns in Virginia.
James was indicted in October by a federal grand jury on one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed they were politically motivated. But the indictment was dismissed on the grounds that Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney who secured their indictments, was unlawfully appointed to the role.
In the past year, James has filed or signed onto dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration over federal immigration policies, rollbacks in federal funding, and worker layoffs and other actions. The litigation includes a civil fraud trial that ended in a $454 million judgment against Trump and his company, which was overturned by a New York appeals court. James has appealed the ruling.
