I first ran into a little-known New York City councilwoman named Letitia James in the aughts at a Brooklyn news conference about rapper Foxy Brown. It seems Foxy had been busted, again, over some bad behavior.
And among the people who came out to defend her was James, whose real agenda had nothing to do with hip-hop or crime. It was all about making a name for herself.
And she did. For all the wrong reasons.
James, whom I’d never met or even heard of, made a beeline for me at the event and started haranguing me — but not about the troubled recording artist. She was furious about my columns supporting the still-unbuilt Barclays Center, which I believed would revitalize a decrepit swath of Brooklyn and bring high-profile entertainment and jobs to a place where they were desperately needed.
James was one of the project’s most ardent opponents, and she demanded that I change my tune.
I told her that my columns merely reflected my deeply held opinion.
Besides, I said, I really didn’t think it appropriate that she confront me over something unrelated to the rapper in question, and attempted to walk away. But James followed me, continuing her unglued rant. She would not get out of my face.
I thought she was nuts.
Barclays, of course, did get built, and turned out to be a major success, putting a dent in unemployment in local housing projects and bringing world-class acts — Jay-Z, Barbra Streisand, just to name two — to the center of Brooklyn.
And James, who later proudly became the first woman of color elected to citywide office as public advocate, suddenly dropped her opposition, angering her fellow protesters.
It seemed that sucking up to powerful developers as she climbed the political food chain was more important than her supposed beliefs.
So I am unsurprised that the attorney general who railed against Donald Trump’s alleged business fraud is being accused of similar behavior.
James, the pretend fighter for the little people, apparently declared that a house she bought in Virginia in 2023 was her primary residence, though as New York’s top prosecutor, she was required by law to live in this state.
More bizarrely, she is accused of purchasing another property with her father as a co-signer — but falsely listing the pair as “husband and wife” in 1983 and 2000.
All this, allegedly, to get cheaper mortgage rates. She could face criminal charges.
Whatever the outcome of these allegations, James will likely live to regret her infamous declaration she aimed at Trump: “No matter how big, rich or powerful you think you are, no one is above the law.”
I’d like to add this: No matter how big, rich and powerful you think you are, hypocrites will always be exposed. So maybe think twice before you scold and harass a president, or real estate developers, or journalists, and look in the mirror.
