Letitia Ann James (born October 18, 1958) is an American lawyer and politician serving since 2019 as the attorney general of New York (NYAG), having won the 2018 election to succeed Barbara Underwood.

[3] James was briefly a candidate in the 2022 New York gubernatorial election, but suspended her campaign in December 2021, opting to instead run for reelection as Attorney General.

[14] James served as a public defender for the Legal Aid Society[15] and established the Urban Network, a coalition of African-American professional organizations aimed at providing scholarships for inner city youth.

[19] James again won the Working Families and the Democratic parties' nominations by a large margin over Samuel Eric Blackwell, an urban planner at Long Island University and pro-stadium advocate.

[27] In 2008, James, with Bill de Blasio, advocated against Mayor Michael Bloomberg's attempts to seek a third term without a voter referendum.

[28] James won the Democratic primary in September 2009 against her opponents, community organizer Delia Hunley-Adossa,[29] who received more than $200,000 from Forest City Ratner[30] and Medhanie Estiphanos, a financial consultant.

[33] In 2013, James ran for New York City Public Advocate and received 36% of the vote in the first Democratic primary, under the 40% threshold that would have avoided a runoff election.

[36] In the 2013 election campaign for Public Advocate, James was endorsed by many of the city's important labor unions, NOW, Planned Parenthood, Democracy for NYC, League of Conservation Voters, Amsterdam News and El Diario.

[48] In August 2020, James filed a civil lawsuit in New York Supreme Court against the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), accusing the organization of corruption and financial misconduct, and calling for its dissolution.

[51] In February 2024, a lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General’s Office under James found that the NRA mismanaged charitable funds when it failed to stop top executives, including CEO Wayne LaPierre, from diverting millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts and other questionable expenditures.

A jury found that LaPierre should pay the gun rights group $4.3 million in damages for mismanagement and misspending of charitable funds, having violated his fiduciary duties from 2014 to 2022.

The panel also found the NRA’s former CFO Wilson Phillips should pay back $2 million for breaching his fiduciary duties as an executive.

[54] James said investigations into 20 separate nursing homes "whose reported conduct during the first wave of the pandemic presented particular concern" would continue for the foreseeable future.

[54] The report was heralded by some in Albany as a "declaration of independence" from New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo after a two-year alliance in opposition to President Donald Trump.

[55] Three weeks after the report, the Albany Times-Union revealed an ongoing joint investigation by the FBI and the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, examining how Governor Cuomo's coronavirus task force played a role in nursing homes' COVID-19 response.

[56] On March 18, 2021, The City found that the FBI's scope included a last-minute addition to the state's 2020 budget that provided greater immunity to long-term care organizations.

[69] Trump argued that previous comments by James, including referring to him as an "illegitimate president" during her campaign for attorney general, prove that she has a political vendetta against him.

[74] On February 12, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Department of Justice was filing a civil lawsuit against James, as well as other officials in the state such as Kathy Hochul, over their handling of immigration issues.