James boasts about legal action against Trump administration

The court victories "protected" more than $230 billion in taxpayer dollars for New York, James said, including $122.5 billion in "illegal cuts" and another $107.8 billion "subjected to coercive conditions." She said the legal fights saved more than 225,000 jobs.

James said the White House’s attempts at sweeping federal funding freezes threatened to put health care, schools, food assistance, public safety, transportation, and other basic services at risk — but we thwarted their attacks." 

"We saved the Gateway Program’s Hudson Tunnel Project, the nation’s most important infrastructure project, recovering more than $10 billion and roughly 90,000 jobs," she said. "We upheld congestion pricing, defended billions for the MTA, and blocked the administration’s attempts to hold transportation and anti-terrorism funding hostage." 

James said victories in those cases allowed her office to secure at least 63 court orders "blocking unlawful federal actions" and boasted that she had won three lawsuits brought by the Department of Justice over immigration laws and other issues.

"These numbers tell a powerful story," she said in the campaign statement. "Behind every dollar protected and every job preserved is a person, a family, or a community that was counting on us."

James, 67, is seeking a third term amid a challenge from Republican Saritha Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor who has been critical of the AG's many lawsuits against the Trump administration. Komatireddy has also accused James of misusing $20 million in taxpayer money to hire outside lawyers to handle cases. 

To be sure, James and Trump, a Republican and native New Yorker, have a long history of public entanglement in lawsuits and nasty political fights over the years. 

In her November 2018 election night victory speech, James called first-term Trump a "con man" and vowed to target the White House's policies and personal financial dealings once she took over the office. 

During his first term, James sued the administration at least 66 times over policies on environmental protection, immigration and education policy, health care and other issues.

After Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, James targeted him with other lawsuits in response to changes in federal policy and funding. She also initiated. a civil fraud trial that ended in a $454 million judgment against the Trump organization and its executives, which was overturned by a New York appeals court. James has appealed the ruling.

The Justice Department has tried several times to indict James on criminal charges, most recently in December when a federal grand jury in Norfolk, Va., refused to charge her with previously dismissed charges of mortgage fraud.