Hochul to address Cornell University case after appointing Leticia James to investigate alleged gang-rape – US politics live

Kathy Hochul said she no longer has faith in the local district attorney’s ability to handle the case, which has restarted a national conversation about sexual assault on college campuses

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Letitia James is no stranger to high profile investigations involving powerful individuals and institutions.

Her most prominent case in recent years was the civil fraud action against Donald Trump and the Trump Organization. In February 2024, a New York judge ruled in her favour and ordered Trump to pay a $450m penalty after finding he fraudulently overstated his net worth to dupe lenders. A five-judge panel tossed the financial penalty last year, but James’s office has appealed to reinstate it.

Raised in Brooklyn with her seven siblings, James attended public schools before getting her law degree at Howard University in Washington DC. She rose through the ranks as a public defender before entering New York politics as a councilmember and then as public advocate, the first Black woman to hold the watchdog role and one where she filed a record number of suits on behalf of people with disabilities, seniors and tenants.

When she won the attorney general’s office, another first for a Black woman, James vowed to “take that power back” from corporations and corrupt politicians.