Tish James Indictment Reverberates In Cuomo-mamdani Fray

Less than a day after an indictment against Attorney General Letitia James ordered by the president, her case has widened a fault line through the race for mayor — with Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo both claiming the other is not equipped to stand up to President Donald Trump as he sets aim at New York. 

James was indicted by a grand jury in Virginia Thursday for alleged bank fraud, after President Donald Trump publicly ordered her prosecution, calling her “guilty as hell” and pushing out a prosecutor who declined to bring the charges.

Numerous New York Democratic Party elected officials rushed to speak up for James, who is facing accusations that she declared a second home her primary residence for purposes of receiving a favorable mortgage rate. 

But former governor Cuomo, who lost the Democratic primary to Mamdani, put out a statement that mentioned neither James nor Trump — and suggested that abuse of prosecutorial power is a problem that goes beyond the president’s targeting of prominent opposition figures.

“Whether it comes from the right or the left, from prosecutors or politicians, the politicization of law enforcement is dangerous and corrosive,” Cuomo’s statement Thursday night read.

Without naming James, Cuomo invoked their contentious history, leading up to his resignation in 2021. Her office conducted a months-long investigation to corroborate sexual harassment allegations from multiple women that ultimately prompted his departure. Cuomo denies any wrongdoing.

Mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo speaks at the Sheraton Hotel in Midtown about his plans to crack down on prostitution in the city, Aug. 18, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

It was Cuomo who had asked James to initiate the probe — only to have his supporters accuse her of political motivations. She briefly ran for governor after Cuomo resigned.

Cuomo is now seeking support from sympathetic Trump voters as well as Democrats, positioning himself as a law-and-order candidate and counting on the financial backing of a number of influential Trump donors.

At a news conference in Foley Square — outside the courthouse where James sued Trump over allegedly fraudulent business practices four years earlier — Mamdani called Cuomo “a former governor unwilling to stand up in a moment of crisis, unwilling to speak up for the very New Yorkers that have been standing on the front lines.”

Mamdani added: “If you are unwilling to do so today, if you cannot say Donald Trump’s name today, how will you stand up to him tomorrow?”

Asked about Mamdani’s remarks, Cuomo’s campaign on Friday afternoon issued an expanded statement from the former governor, this time naming James and firing back at Trump.

Referring to a probe over nursing home deaths, Cuomo said: 

“The White House weaponized the DOJ against me when I was governor of New York,” he said, “and it’s wrong that it appears to be happening with and AG James and former FBI Director James Comey — it is part of why people have lost faith in the justice system, the cornerstone of our democracy.”

Spokesperson Rich Azzopardi also added some of the same donors who backed Cuomo and Trump have also donated to other prominent New York democrats.

‘Don’t Worry About Me’

The Nov. 4 general election is increasingly being shaped by national politics and how to best handle an adversarial Trump administration intent on cracking down on Democrat-run cities like New York and siphoning federal funding from them.

Cuomo has argued that Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, would make a perfect foil for the president and provoke an even more heavy-handed response in New York.

On Friday, Mamdani made the case that in states like California, the mayor, the attorney general and the governor have all been on the same page fighting back against Trump against funding cuts, and on his efforts to deploy the National Guard there. 

“Can you imagine Andrew Cuomo working with Tish James and Kathy Hochul to take on Donald Trump?” Mamdani said. “This is a man who can’t even say Tish James’ name.”

Cuomo has also had a chilly relationship with Hochul since his former lieutenant governor took over for him after his 2021 resignation.

Mamdani said he spoke to James Thursday night after news of her indictment broke. 

“I told her whatever we could do to stand alongside her she should let us know,” he said. 

According to Cuomo, James replied, “‘Don’t worry about me.’”

“That’s indicative of an attorney general who has spent all of her time worrying about the people of the state,” he said.

State Attorney General Letitia James speaks at the mayoral primary party for Zohran Mamdani at a rooftop bar in Long Island City, June 24, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

The indictment alleges James making false statements to a financial institution for a loan she secured on a property in Virginia that she rented out instead of using as a second home, as she had claimed in mortgage documents, federal prosecutors allege. 

“We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights,” she said in a statement on X after the charges came down Thursday.

James’ her defenders see the prosecution as bald political retaliation after James took Trump and his heirs to court in a civil lawsuit for widespread falsification of their property values owned by his business in order to secure more favorable loans and lower taxes.

A judge found Trump guilty, fining him half a billion dollars, though an appeals judge threw out the penalty, but not the guilty verdict. The matter is still pending before New York’s Court of Appeal.

James’s indictment follows that of another Trump enemy, former FBI director James Comey, and comes at the heels of a Truth Social Post where Trump wrote directly to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, pressuring her to prosecute James, Comey and U.S. Senator Adam Schiff. 

“Pam,” he wrote, “they are guilty as hell.” 

The Wall Street Journal later reported the post was intended as a direct message not a public post. 

Asked about James’s indictment, Mayor Eric Adams, who recently dropped his re-election bid, said people should “let the process play out” before quickly pivoting to his own political woes after his corruption indictment, which was later withdrawn by federal prosecutors after Trump took office. 

“Don’t start asking me about what I think about what’s going on now, I want to know, what did you all think about when my life was destroyed in this city?” Adams said. 

Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa called James’s indictment an example of the legal system weaponized against political opponents. “We watched Donald Trump endure lawfare, and now Attorney General Tish James is facing it too. It’s got to end.”

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