Saritha Komatireddy, a former Indian American federal prosecutor is seeking the Republican nomination to run against state Attorney General Letitia James, the embattled Democratic incumbent and target of President Donald Trump.
Announcing her run in a social media post, Komatireddy, 41, said she was running because “we need a prosecutor in charge, focused on New York and focused on safety,” adding, “If New York isn’t safe, nothing else matters.”
In a video outlining Komatireddy’s professional background and her motivation for entering public office, she linked her decision to pursue a legal career to the Sept. 11 attacks, saying the events changed her and led her to law school “to prosecute terrorists to protect New York and America.”
Komatireddy worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District in Brooklyn, serving as chief of International Narcotics and Money Laundering, Deputy Chief of Appeals and Deputy Chief of General Crimes.
“I’ve spent over a decade in the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuting the worst of the worst. terrorists, murderers, fraudsters, and hackers,” Komatireddy said on LinkedIn — noting she has taken on cases involving al Qaeda, ISIS and the Sinaloa cartel.
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“Now, I want to get the attorney general’s office back to basics — protecting New Yorkers and locking up criminals. Under Letitia James, the AG’s office has become preoccupied with partisan vendetta, and lost sight of what matters to most New Yorkers.”
Komatireddy, who also served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagugh when he was on the U.S. Court of Appeals, would likely have to win a Republican primary before facing James.
Komatireddy — a married mother of four — said the bottom line is “if New York isn’t safe, nothing else matters.”
“If elected, I’ll focus all my energy on the safety of the people of New York – from Bethpage to Buffalo, Staten Island to Saratoga Springs, the people of the Empire State will be able to trust that they have an Attorney General focused on keeping them safe.”
A recipient of multiple attorney general awards, Komatireddy is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She has lectured at Columbia University Law School for over a decade.
She grew up in Missouri as the daughter of doctors who immigrated from Telangana in India and has described herself as the first candidate from a Telugu background.
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Incumbent James, 67, the AG since 2019, won a civil fraud conviction against Trump and the Trump Organization for inflating their net worth by billions to allegedly dupe banks and insurers over the course of a decade.
But a New York appeals court threw out the more than $500 million fine he owed in the business fraud case while Trump maintained it was a partisan prosecution.
In turn, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice indicted James for mortgage fraud regarding a residential property she owned in Virginia.
But a federal judge dismissed the case, finding that interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan was improperly appointed to her position and “had no lawful authority” to secure indictments against her and another Trump adversary in a separate case, former FBI Director James Comey.
The Justice Department sought a new indictment, but in December, two grand juries each declined to indict James.
James claimed she was innocent and accused Trump of using his Justice Department to wage retribution for prosecuting him.