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For Letitia James, a promise kept

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Whatever your opinion of New York Attorney General Tish James, you have to acknowledge she has kept at least one campaign promise.

James, the former New York City Council member and public advocate, was elected by the voters in 2018 after pledging to pursue myriad investigations surrounding then-President Donald Trump. No ambiguity about it; no wishy-washy politician promise. Trump, she said, would be in her sights.

James told The Buffalo News in 2018 she would continue state litigation against Trump policies on immigration, civil rights, the environment and minorities. And significantly, she promised even more scrutiny of the president’s personal and corporate finances, his real estate holdings, tax issues and more.

“It’s time all this was looked at,” she said then. “Without a doubt.”

On Wednesday, James fulfilled that campaign promise – big time. In a move generating headlines across the country, the attorney general announced her lawsuit against Trump, three of his children and his company over a “staggering” pattern of alleged fraud. She produced a 220-page document contending that Trump’s annual financial statements were mostly false, and that the Trump Organization routinely inflated the worth of almost all of its famous properties to obtain more favorable lending terms. It all added up, she said, to more than $250 million in benefits she claims were illegal and should be returned.

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“With the help of his children and senior executives at the Trump Organization, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and cheat the system,” James said. “In fact, the very foundation of his purported net worth is rooted in incredible fraud and illegality. Mr. Trump thought he could get away with the art of the steal, but today, that conduct ends.”

The AG says even Trump’s 2014 effort to buy the Buffalo Bills (which he acknowledged to The News in 2016 was “half-hearted” because he expected to run for president), was based on inflated estimates of his net worth to gain favorable loan terms to buy the team. James claimed the president-to-be at the time pegged his fortune at more than $8 billion while other documents reported about $5.1 billion.

Now, election-year battle lines are forming. Republicans are outraged, claiming the James effort stems from a vendetta she carried with her into office. She did what she pledged, they say, but reject the original premise.

State Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy, also a candidate for the 23rd Congressional District, immediately stepped up to support the party leader. He called it “one of the most brazen political publicity stunts I have seen.”

“Day after day, Tish James ignores the blatant corruption of her fellow Democrats and the crime wave that has besieged our state,” Langworthy said. “She has engaged in her own corruption of the office, launching political attacks against rivals, and her relentless obsession with not only the President, but his entire family is disgusting.”

The interesting point of all this remains that James told voters in 2018 what she would do if elected. Voters responded with overwhelming support. Now she takes that record to the voters in November, where once again they will pronounce their judgment on fulfilling that campaign promise.

Friends of the late Rep. Amo Houghton righted a pandemic wrong last weekend by gathering in Corning’s Christ Church to pay tribute to the longtime Corning Inc. CEO and Republican congressman. Houghton, a World War II veteran, died at the height of the 2020 pandemic, and never received the send-off deserving of such a major figure in New York politics.

Former Lt. Gov. Stan Lundine, a Democrat from the same district who preceded him in Congress and admired Houghton’s bipartisan spirit, seemed to sum up the view from Christ Church.

“He did a marvelous job of representing the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes,” Lundine said. “He was not only a personal friend, but a man of great public service who tried to bring people together.”


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