The New York Editorial Board’s interview with Saritha Komatireddy, the Republican nominee for New York attorney general in the 2026 election.
This interview originally appeared on the New York Editorial Board Substack on October 19, 2026 and is republished on Vital City with permission as a public service.
The New York Editorial Board spoke with Saritha Komatireddy, the Republican nominee for New York attorney general, on the morning of October 15, 2026. Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York running for office for the first time, is challenging Democratic Attorney General Letitia James in the 2026 election.
Participating journalists: Juan Manuel Benítez, Nicole Gelinas, Josh Greenman, Alyssa Katz, Ben Max, Akash Mehta, Myles Miller, Harry Siegel, Ben Smith, Liena Žagare.
Full Transcript
Ben Smith
Thanks so much for coming in. I always say this, but it is always true, which is politicians don’t have to do this anymore. Politicians or lawyers…. And so we appreciate that you are a friend of the working press here. And I’ll lightly moderate, go around, maybe cut people off if they go too long. Go ahead, Nicole.
Nicole Gelinas
Good morning.
Saritha Komatireddy
Good morning.
Nicole Gelinas
No Republican has won statewide office in New York state since 2002, and no non-incumbent Republican has won in more than 30 years. In a year where Trump is deeply unpopular in the state, and with you just starting out here with your political career, what makes you think you can break this decades-long trend?
Saritha Komatireddy
Let me tell you what I hear when I go around New York. I have traveled every single one of the 62 counties in the state. I’m the only candidate that has done that. And when I talk to New Yorkers, political parties don’t come up. I ask them all the same question: “What do you think about public safety in New York?” And I ask it as an open-ended question. I don’t ask it as a leading question. I really want to know. And without fail, people talk to me about repeat offenders. They talk to me about the homelessness crisis. Those are the two topics that come up the most, not just in New York City, but across the state.
And they also talk to me about how they feel ripped off, whether that’s because they’re paying a lot of taxes and they don’t see what they’re getting in return, or because they’ve personally been victimized by scams that are attacking New Yorkers left and right, all ages, and we’re really not doing a good job of going after them.
I always talk to them about the issues. So when it comes to political parties, I’ll leave the political strategy to the political strategists. I was a career prosecutor. I focus on what New Yorkers are actually concerned about when it comes to safety. Most New Yorkers in this state think the state is going in the wrong direction on crime. And that’s consistent with what I hear when I go around the state and I talk to people, whether it’s in the cities, whether it’s in suburban areas, whether it’s in rural areas. I find that there’s actually a lot of common ground, regardless of political party. I think that if we have common-sense solutions in that common ground, we can make progress.
Josh Greenman
You said most people think that things are going in the wrong direction on crime. What do crime numbers say, and if there’s a gap between what the statistics say and what the people think, which is right and why?
Saritha Komatireddy
So most people in New York feel that New York is less safe than it was prepandemic, and the crime statistics confirm that. If you look at total index crimes in New York state in 2019, they were at their lowest point in the 21st century. From 2019 to 2024, which is the last year of validated data, there has been a 26% increase in crime. You continue to see that when you look at the different categories of crime. Felony assaults are up. What does that mean? Stabbings, slashings, people being punched, people being pushed onto the subway tracks.
Josh Greenman
What about the last couple of years? We’re seeing serious declines in New York in murders and shootings. It’s true felony assaults and other kinds of assaults are stubbornly high, but there are many, many other types of crime that are actually trending significantly down in New York right now.
Saritha Komatireddy
Actually, only murders and shootings are at lows, and the police deserve a great deal of credit for that. Every other category of crime is up.
Ben Smith
So the police get credit for the stuff that’s down? Is it the police’s fault, the stuff that’s up?
Saritha Komatireddy
No. I will say that the — Let me answer that question first.
Josh Greenman
Are you saying every other category of crime — I’m sorry, but every other category of crime besides murder and shooting, you’re saying is up this year versus last in New York City?
Saritha Komatireddy
If you look at the Vital City reporting on this —
Josh Greenman
That’s where I work.
Saritha Komatireddy
You have a great multicolored chart on this that was just published a few months ago that looks at every category of crime, and murders and shootings are down, and felony assaults are up, hate crimes are up, burglaries are up. Look at your own data, and you see that.
[Note: The chart in question, from Vital City’s 2026 midyear crime report, shows counts of all but one major crime in New York City rising between the first six months of 2019 and the first six months of 2026. It also shows all major crimes other than rape and felony assault declining between the first six months of 2025 and the first six months of 2026.]
What people are concerned about is the feeling of crime now versus prepandemic. And I think when you ask people, “Why is it that you feel less safe?” — I understand that month to month, different statistics come out comparing this month to last month, this week this year to this week last year. But when you think about how people feel, they’re looking at how they feel over the course of what New York feels like now versus what New York used to feel like a few years ago. And that does map onto the statistics. Crime in New York now is higher than it was before the pandemic. That’s not because of the virus — COVID doesn’t cause crime.
Juan Manuel Benítez
But if I may, that’s happening all over the world in many big cities. We are seeing higher crime numbers after the pandemic for many different issues. And I’m listening to you now — I listened to the interview you gave to Ben Max on Max Politics, and it seems to me sometimes the way you speak about your plans, you’re running for governor instead of attorney general. Are you really running for the right office? Because you’re talking about changing the laws instead of enforcing existing laws that you don’t really like, like the bail laws.
Saritha Komatireddy
I’m running for attorney general because what we need is enforcement of the laws. So I’m focused on New York, and I will tell you it’s very clear what changed in New York in 2019 and 2020 that has resulted in an increase in crime. I know what happened because I was a federal prosecutor at that time, and I saw it firsthand. We saw both a change where we have people like Tish James and other progressive politicians who don’t believe in enforcing the law to the fullest extent.
So someone like [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg comes into office, issues a memo on day one, and instructs all of his prosecutors not to prosecute nine categories of crime. And then beyond that, even in certain categories that they do prosecute, not to prosecute with the top charge, but instead to downplay the charges. Even in those situations, not to ask for jail time. I talk to investigators in the DA’s office that tell me that they have violent criminals who they’re putting into diversion programs. It’s unheard of. Diversion programs are usually for low-level, nonviolent offenders. So we have a situation where the prosecutors aren’t actually prosecuting. We have a second situation where the bail laws also limit judges in being able to detain individuals.
Juan Manuel Benítez
But if I may, because you say that this is not partisan, but you’re talking about “progressive” politicians or DAs, and you are a lifelong Republican from a family who admired Ronald Reagan, and you worked for three different presidents: President Obama, President Biden and President Trump. Who aligns the best with your legal philosophy of those three presidents?
Saritha Komatireddy
My legal philosophy doesn’t come from presidents. My legal philosophy comes from the law.
Juan Manuel Benítez
Yeah, but you worked under the three of them. So I’m sure you had some views about the boss in the White House while you were working under the three of them.
Saritha Komatireddy
Well, that’s what’s remarkable when you’re a career prosecutor. When you’re actually working as a federal prosecutor in one of these offices, you see firsthand that the policy doesn’t change when the presidents change. In fact, prosecutors are supposed to follow the facts and the law. And when I started, I was hired by Loretta Lynch during the Obama administration. She believed in enforcing the law. We went on to switch administrations. I worked under Rich Donoghue during the first Trump administration.
Juan Manuel Benítez
With all due respect, we are seeing how ICE is going into communities all over the country. So this president is enforcing the law differently than other presidents. So the fact that you’re saying that everything is the same — it’s not the same. What president do you think is the best of those three when it comes to enforcing the law?
Saritha Komatireddy
I actually think there were a number of consistencies in how we enforce the law under all three presidents. Under President Obama, we regularly had violent criminals who were here illegally transferred into federal custody at the jailhouse door. That was done consistently. I saw that firsthand. That policy continued under President Trump.
Ben Smith
Did you vote for all three of them? Did you vote for Obama, Biden, Trump?
Saritha Komatireddy
No.
Ben Smith
Who did you vote for in each election?
Saritha Komatireddy
I voted for President Trump.
Ben Smith
Both times?
Saritha Komatireddy
Yes.
Alyssa Katz
Would all of them have launched an investigation against Representative Ilhan Omar, as Trump is doing right now, and do you think that investigation is warranted?
Saritha Komatireddy
I don’t know. I don’t know the facts of that investigation. I understand it’s unfolding right now. I don’t know the details. I’m not going to comment on something that I’m not tracking.
Ben Smith
On something a little more sort of up your alley, but in this space: Danielle Sassoon resigned under — well-reported, I’m sure you read about it, you know these folks, they’re in that sort of community of former elite clerks now that became federal prosecutors — because she said that there was political pressure from the Trump administration [to drop charges against Mayor Eric Adams]. You’ve seen your peers, people you know, resign across the country from jobs like the one you used to have. Would you have resigned if you were in Danielle’s shoes in that moment?
Saritha Komatireddy
Again, I don’t know. I was not in charge of that prosecution. I do know that the individuals involved —
Ben Smith
Well, you’re not in charge of every crime in New York City that you talk about. This is a place you have real expertise. And these are people you know. I guess I’m sort of — it seems like you’re — just speaking specifically around the allegations from former Republican prosecutors like you, politicization inside the Justice Department. What do you think of that?
Saritha Komatireddy
First of all, I was a career prosecutor, not a Republican prosecutor. I was a career prosecutor.
Ben Smith
These are the people I’m describing. So is Danielle. So are a lot of those folks.
Saritha Komatireddy
And in terms of a specific case, you do actually have to look at the facts and the law. That’s not a line. That’s not an evasion. That’s not a slogan. That’s actually how we operate. Danielle had access to the full case file and had a view of that case. And she did what she believed was right. And I respect that. I don’t have access to that case file. I don’t know what was in there. I’m not sure if I would have made the same judgment. It really does depend on the facts and the law.
Ben Smith
So you don’t have a view of how Trump is running the Justice Department right now?
Saritha Komatireddy
I’m focused on New York, and I have a view of how Tish James is running the New York attorney general’s office right now. And you can see that from her own employees telling all of us that it’s nakedly political. You have a situation where that employee — all he did was send an email to his colleagues saying, “We’re doing cases the wrong way, not based on the facts, but on politics.” And the guy is fired. He’s intimidated at his home. His personnel file is released.
Ben Smith
We’re here to talk about that, obviously, but…you spent a lot of your career in the federal Justice Department…And since you’re running for office in New York, if you manage to only talk about your narrow lane, it will be the first time in the history of New York politics. It just seems surprising that you have no view on the most important story in the American legal profession.
Saritha Komatireddy
My views are very case-specific. I don’t engage in sort of blanket political commentary because that’s not my field. I’m a prosecutor. I’m not a politician. I’m not interested in talking about politics like it’s some sports game. I’m actually focused on trying to get practical results for people in New York, for my own family’s sake, for everyone’s sake, so that we can make New York safer. I find it unproductive to engage in generic platitudes or political commentary when that doesn’t actually make New Yorkers’ lives better.
Juan Manuel Benítez
You mentioned Alvin Bragg before. So do you think that President Donald Trump shouldn’t have been convicted? Because you said you voted for Donald Trump. You voted for a convicted felon, right?
Saritha Komatireddy
I’m not even sure where to start with that question. When you’re talking about a specific legal case, you’ve got to look at the facts and the law of that case. When you’re talking about Alvin Bragg, I think a number of people who live in Manhattan are very disappointed with Alvin Bragg because he’s letting criminals go every single day. And he is letting violent crime be an issue in New York.
Juan Manuel Benítez
But specifically with that case with President Donald Trump?
Saritha Komatireddy
Felony assaults in Manhattan have gone up. We see routinely reporting of people being stabbed — on the train just yesterday, that happened again on the 6 train two weeks ago. A man was stabbed to death on the J train. These are the things that New Yorkers care about, and those are the things that I can actually improve by being attorney general.
Harry Siegel
Hold on. Is Alvin Bragg following the facts and the law as district attorney? You talk about him a lot. And what would you actually do as AG in relation to this prosecutor and others who you think have a mistaken approach?
Saritha Komatireddy
Well, the problem is that he doesn’t actually charge people with what they did. He’s not honest in charging. Let me give you an example. I had a man talk to me a few days ago who told me that he was pushed onto the ground. The man who pushed him called him “a dirty Jew,” and the case was taken by Alvin Bragg’s office.
Now, that wasn’t charged as assault two. It was charged as assault three. It wasn’t charged as a felony assault, which it should have been, with the hate crimes enhancement. It was charged as a misdemeanor assault. And then a few years later — sorry, a few months later, it was knocked down and ultimately dismissed entirely. The individual who committed the attack only had to pay the $12 in restitution that it took for this man to dry-clean his shirt. That’s the kind of case where he’s not charging the person with what they did. He’s knocking down the charges, and that results in there being no consequences for this attacker.
Harry Siegel
But he’s either following the facts and the law and his discretion, or he’s not. What would you do about this as attorney general if you think a local prosecutor’s analysis of the facts and the law is wrong? That’s the question.
Saritha Komatireddy
Sure. So in that situation, the attorney general has special jurisdiction to step in to prosecute a hate crime when a district attorney is not effective in doing so. Executive Law 63 provides that power. So that’s a situation where the attorney general’s office can step in, take over the case from Alvin Bragg, and prosecute it itself.
Josh Greenman
Would you review every prosecution and see if you think he followed the facts and the law, or would you only look at the ones that kind of made a splash in the media, or would you take complaints and figure that out? How would it work?
Saritha Komatireddy
Yeah, so this is where it really does come down to restructuring the AG’s office and creating a culture where the AG is actually a partner in criminal law enforcement in the state. That means we have about 700 assistant attorneys general in the New York attorney general’s office. It’s one of the largest law firms in the state. It’s bigger than Skadden. Currently, a fraction of those attorneys are assigned to prosecute crime, less than 100. I would change it so that 350 of the 700, half the office, is assigned to prosecute crime.
Josh Greenman
Coming out of what divisions?
Saritha Komatireddy
Well, I would actually recruit into the office and make sure that we have — I don’t think they have 350 criminal prosecutors right now, but we know that hundreds of criminal prosecutors have left the Manhattan DA’s office, the Queens DA’s office, the Bronx DA’s office over the last five years because they’re disappointed that they no longer get to prosecute crime. And so we’re going to bring talent in.
And then we’re going to use that in two ways. First, New York Court of Appeals has held that AAGs in the attorney general’s office can be cross-designated as special ADAs in any DA’s office in the state. There have been DAs I’ve spoken with all across the state who have said, “I would love extra manpower. We’re going after this particular organized crime ring. We’re going after this drug trafficking ring. I could use another few attorneys.” We’ll actually be an office that provides that help. And in situations like that, when we need to override prosecutors not doing the job, then we’ll send an attorney to do it.
And you’re asking a good question: How does that get on your radar? And I think there’s a couple of ways. First of all, being a leader in criminal law enforcement means keeping in touch with the trends. One of the things I’ve done during the course of the campaign is I’ve held law enforcement roundtables county by county across the state. I’ve sat down with sheriffs and police chiefs and the DAs and public defenders and probation officers to talk about what are the crime trends. That’s an important part of leadership: understanding what’s going on in your state, getting ahead of the issues and preventing crime.
So part of it will just be having an increased awareness and having a culture of cooperation and information-sharing in the state. The other will be to have an open line with crime victims. The victim in that case was outraged. He has had no one to call. And we need to make sure that there is an open line of communication with crime victims. If a crime victim is dissatisfied with their local DA, that they have someone to call.
Nicole Gelinas
Out of New York City’s five DAs, do you think one of them is doing a good job?
Saritha Komatireddy
You know, generally I have heard and seen good things from Queens DA Melinda Katz. That’s consistent with my experience when I was a federal prosecutor as well. I saw that from her office. I thought that they were trying to do their best in going after gang violence. And so of the five, I would —
Ben Max
If the AG’s not doing her job, if a lot of the DAs aren’t doing the job, if the bail laws are so broken, the only reason that crime has come down over the last couple of years in a number of categories, especially gun violence, is the police work? I mean, it seems like, again, going back to where we started, when the crimes are going down, it’s because of the police. When the crime’s going up, it’s only because of the AG and the Manhattan DA and the bail laws?
Saritha Komatireddy
No, it’s because of the consequences. So when you look at the way that they’re policing, you have Police Commissioner Tisch conducting targeted policing on murderers and trigger-pullers, people who are shooting illegal guns and committing acts of violence. In those situations, you do have bail laws that permit detention, and in general, judges do impose severe sentences.
In the same case where someone has not shot someone dead, but rather has threatened to cut someone’s head off with an axe while holding an axe, that case has involved the individual being released, not detained pretrial, and suffering no consequences. But really the difference is the consequences. When the harm has been done and someone is dead, they go to jail for a long time. When the person has been caught before they could actually commit an act of violence, our current system doesn’t impose any consequence. As a result, we’re waiting for someone to get hurt in order to do something.
Ben Max
So when gun violence was spiking, the police were not doing that job well?
Saritha Komatireddy
I’m sorry?
Ben Max
When gun violence was spiking, the police were not doing that job well, and those consequences weren’t there?
Saritha Komatireddy
When gun violence was spiking in 2020, you mean?
Ben Max
Yeah, 2020, 2021.
Saritha Komatireddy
You know, I remember when that happened. I was telling you before, the reason I saw a lot of this is I was in the federal prosecutor’s office. I was a supervisor in the intake unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. And that unit traditionally brought in cases related to transnational smuggling and other transnational crime. But after bail reform, we basically became a local DA’s office. The PD would come to us and say, “We’ve got a guy who’s robbed a bank four times, or been caught with an illegal gun four times, or carjacked a car four times, and they keep getting released in the state. We need you to do something.” So they federalized the case.
Myles Miller
Well, that’s mainly because of the federal enhancement, just because if you’re a criminal who’s committing a crime with a gun, then you can easily be charged federally, more than — if you talk to Bob Boyce or any other chief of detectives. That sort of squarely lies there.
Saritha Komatireddy
That has always been true, but the influx we had in gun cases in 2020 was because there was a spike in gun violence, the state wasn’t prosecuting it effectively. I actually came in during COVID and reopened the grand jury so that we could indict as many illegal gun cases as possible in a day, which we did, in order to decrease the gun violence in the state. The feds took a much bigger role.
Myles Miller
I wonder if you can just talk a little bit, some of the proposals that you’ve mentioned — it’s kind of weird the way that the attorney general’s office works in New York state. It’s a function of the executive branch, chief legal officer, and obviously the governor can make referrals. But how do you get some of this criminal justice stuff done when it sort of requires the governor to ask for it, or a referral, just based off the way the office is structured?
Saritha Komatireddy
I’m really glad you asked that question. So the office has vast powers and original jurisdiction to prosecute crime. There’s an organized crime task force under Executive Law 70-a. The law provides the attorney general jurisdiction to prosecute any cross-border crime. When we see what people are suffering from, when we talk to small business owners across the state, they’ll say that retail theft is on the rise. Retail theft is in large part committed by organized retail theft rings. After I made a video about that phenomenon and it went viral online, I had someone reach out to me who used to work in the attorney general’s organized crime task force and who said to me, “I’m so glad you shined light on this issue. I used to prosecute exactly that organized retail theft when I was in the AG’s organized crime task force, and we need to be doing it again.”
The AG’s office has a hate crimes unit. The AG’s office has a financial crimes unit. The AG’s office has a Medicaid fraud unit with criminal jurisdiction. The reason the word “crime” is in all of those units, it’s not an accident. The AG’s office has the jurisdiction to prosecute crime.
When it comes to referrals, that referral can come from the governor, it can come from the comptroller, it can come from state agency heads. There have actually been so many instances across the state of people asking for help from the AG, and she doesn’t help them.
Just recently, the Ithaca Common Council voted unanimously to ask the AG to investigate NYSEG [New York State Electric & Gas] and RG&E [Rochester Gas and Electric] because they have a reason to believe that there’s a fraud involved. Fraud is well within the jurisdiction of the AG’s office under Section 63(12), but the AG didn’t respond to that request. I did. I said I would open that investigation on day one.
Out in Chautauqua County in western New York, there’s a city of Dunkirk that suffered a $16 million deficit. They have to raise taxes on local residents because of the mismanagement of their local government. So the county legislature voted and passed a resolution asking the attorney general: “Please investigate whether there was fraud, embezzlement, or whether this was just neglect or something else.” And the attorney general said she can’t do anything about it. Again, people are asking for help in New York, and she is not actually answering that call.
Nicole Gelinas
On the issue of people asking for help, how do you square the unhappiness that you see across the state with the fact that voters continue to vote for someone like Bragg, for example, elected by large margins twice now? Why would Manhattan voters vote for him twice if they were so unhappy with the work that he’s doing?
Saritha Komatireddy
You’ve got to ask them. I’ll tell you, I talk to Manhattan voters. When I talk to them and explain what the AG can do to make their lives better, they’re very excited to vote for me.
Akash Mehta
You talked about voters’ top priority. I think something like 5% of likely voters say crime is the top issue, a fraction of the portion that say the economy is the top issue, the cost of living. But you talked about areas of crime beyond violent crime. Could you talk about how you would approach enforcing antitrust law, consumer protection law and, more generally, holding powerful corporations accountable?
Saritha Komatireddy
Of course. Well, I believe in holding everyone accountable. When I was a federal prosecutor, I went after the worst of the worst. My colleagues prosecuted El Chapo. I prosecuted the man in the Mexican government who made it possible for El Chapo to operate with impunity. I do think you have to go after people whether they are powerful or not.
In terms of consumer protection, again, when I speak with voters, they tell me about what they’re dealing with. People are getting scammed. I talk to folks who are on food stamps, and they say that their food stamp card is getting hacked into, and the entire balance disappears. I talked to someone the other day. He said his brother lost $400. That’s his entire grocery budget for the month, and he doesn’t know what to do. That’s because there’s cybercriminals hacking into our food stamp cards, and no one’s going after that cybercrime.
I know that well. I used to prosecute cybercrime in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. I helped build up the cybercrime practice. I did the first cybercrime trial in the EDNY, and I teach cybercrime at Columbia Law School. That kind of crime is being committed often by out-of-state or overseas cybercriminals, and we’ve got to, one, do our best to hold those people accountable. I’ve done that. I’ve actually extradited Russian —
Ben Max
You’ve quickly gone back to your focus area of organized street crime. He was asking about corporate —
Saritha Komatireddy
Sure. Well, when it comes to corporations and antitrust, you’re talking about the larger targets. We have to police all of that, too. If you remember, there was a time when the AG’s office was actually known for aggressively policing Wall Street. That’s not the case anymore, but it can be.
Josh Greenman
Was that good — was Eliot Spitzer a good AG?
Saritha Komatireddy
I think it’s important to go after fraud, whether it’s being committed by large actors or small ones. I’m not afraid of anyone, and so I will actually prosecute, whether it’s someone on Wall Street or someone who’s an overseas hacker. I’ll prosecute both.
You’re talking about consumer protection. That can come in the form of criminal prosecution. It can come in the form of civil fraud prosecutions. But I think it’s important to revive all of this because people are being scammed. People talk to me about contractor fraud. Actually, I was speaking with some union members at an event the other day telling me about this. All over the state, there are folks who engage in a contract. They’re expecting some work to be done on their property, and the person takes the money and runs. And there’s two folks who lose out on that, and it’s both the homeowner and also the subcontractors who never get paid.
They’ve told me that they’ve called the AG’s office. This is a consumer protection matter. They’ve called the AG’s office, and the AG’s office does nothing.
These are the kinds of things that used to be that you could call the regional office of the attorney general, and they would respond. If you’re scammed by a — treated unfairly by a corporation, they would call the corporation. They would call Target or Home Depot and say, “You know what, you need to fix this situation.” Or if it was an individual or a small business, a contractor is repeatedly engaging in fraud, well, that can be dealt with civilly. If it’s repeated intentional fraud, it can be dealt with criminally.
Josh Greenman
I guess another way to put Akash’s question is, are there major practices that large corporations are engaging in that specifically trouble you, that you think they’ve gotten away with with impunity over the years, that you would want to focus the AG’s office on combating?
Saritha Komatireddy
You know, I do think one area that I think we should be looking at, and they actually have taken some action on, is surveillance pricing. I don’t think that anyone should be paying a higher price because of their race or their socioeconomic class or other factor of that kind. And so the AG’s office has taken some action on this. What I’ve heard from Albany is that the law that was passed is not sufficient and will need to be amended further. And I’ll be making sure that I do that, to make sure that we actually ensure that prices are equal for everyone, regardless of what they look like or what their background is. So speaking of —
[Crosstalk]
Saritha Komatireddy
Another answer to your question, by the way, is what I just mentioned about the Ithaca Common Council has asked the attorney general to investigate the incessant rate hikes from NYSEG and RG&E. That’s a large corporation. They’ve pointed to a particular transaction that they believe is improper. I’m not going to take a view on whether it is improper or not, but it is something that I will look into, and we’ll see what happens.
Akash Mehta
Republican attorneys general have gone beyond Democrats across the country in pursuing legal action against frontier AI labs. So attorneys general in Florida, Iowa, Arkansas and Idaho have all asked courts to halt the development of advanced AI until it can be done safely. No Democratic attorney general, to my knowledge, has done the same, including Letitia James. If you were elected, would you seek to halt AI development?
Saritha Komatireddy
That’s a really good question. I think about AI in two ways. One is, AI is a means of committing another action. And just like with computers when they first came out, and the internet, and when we saw the development of cybercrime prosecutions and crypto, when the new technology is used as a means to commit an old crime — someone’s hacking, now they use AI to do the hacking in a more efficient, effective way — then you go after that crime, and you go after that victimization even when it involves AI. That makes sense.
So I hear about this all the time, because the phone scams that people are falling for often are supercharged by AI right now. An elderly citizen will get a phone call. It will sound like her grandson’s voice. That voice is being mimicked by AI. There will be personal details. Those details will have been obtained by AI, and the grandmother will be convinced into wiring $100,000 out the door that she never sees again. So in a situation like that, it’s not that you’re going after the AI, but you’re making sure that AI is not being used to victimize people. And I think that’s important, to be tuned in to when that’s happening and to get ahead of it, because that’s moving very fast and we need to move faster.
AI as an end — just going after the technology because it’s a new technology — is a different situation. And I have seen firsthand, again, with crypto, we saw the same dynamic, where it’s one thing for it to be used as part of a larger crime. It’s another to go after the technology because we think the technology itself is dangerous. These technologies can be used for good or bad.
I think when it comes to AI regulation, we need to work together with as many people as we can work together with. I would like to collaborate with other states to come up with a framework where we can make sure that technology is used safely and is not — there are guardrails in place to ensure that it is not used for criminality. I think that has to be a collaborative process. In general, regulation by enforcement tends to be spotty and ineffective. It’s better to have regulation by regulation. And that’s something I saw firsthand —
Akash Mehta
In advance of those sufficient guardrails being instituted, is AI, as currently being developed, safe enough to release to the public?
Saritha Komatireddy
Listen, when I was chief of staff of the DEA, I actually was involved with — when the Biden administration was circulating its executive order on AI. And so there were a lot of conversations about exactly how do we do this. We have a rapidly accelerating technology. We need to make sure that it’s not being used for criminal purposes. We need to make sure that its development is safe.
What the Biden administration came up with as a framework was guardrails, was people who serve as checks and balances, review requirements, approval requirements before technology is released. This is a very consequential and nuanced area. I don’t think you can just say, “Me, as a New York attorney general, I alone will be the one who decides whether AI goes forward or not.” I do think you have to have a conversation with everyone involved — that includes the governor, that includes other attorneys general — to figure out how to let the technology be used for good but not have it be used for bad.
Ben Smith
How do you use it yourself?
Saritha Komatireddy
I use AI in place of Google for research.
Ben Smith
Not writing your briefs?
Saritha Komatireddy
No.
Nicole Gelinas
Speaking of fraud and abuse, you would like to direct the Charities Bureau to look into homeless service providers, mental illness service providers. Can you say, are you looking for systemic fraud? And what do you see as the evidence for that systemic fraud? And how do you know the difference between providers that are doing a bad job because they’re committing fraud and providers that are doing a bad job because the government is sending very mixed signals about what it wants?
For example, through the process of democracy, we still haven’t figured out in New York City and state, do we want people to be in long-term mental institutions, or do we want the hospital to stabilize them and let them go to an outside housing provider? How much of that is bad acting, and how much of that is confusion about what the mission is here?
Saritha Komatireddy
I’ve read the reports of the New York state comptroller, Tom DiNapoli, the New York City comptroller, Mark Levine. There’s actually been wide-ranging reviews of the homeless shelters in New York, and those reviews have shown a number of red flags related to misuse of funds, fraud, embezzlement, outright corruption and kickbacks. If you read those reports, you’ll see that. You have homeless shelter CEOs making a million dollars a year while New Yorkers are dying on the streets. Recently, we had a murder in a homeless shelter, and that same shelter got a contract for half a billion dollars for 40 years. So in those reports, the comptrollers call for investigation. The attorney general hasn’t answered that call. I have said that I will.
I think it’s important to take a look. Some homeless shelters are doing a good job. I’ve spoken with the homeless shelter CEO here in the city who told me that 93% of the people that she brings into her shelter move on to stable housing. I visited homeless shelters in Rochester who are able to provide substance use treatment through peer counseling and have 66% success rate, which is actually quite high for substance use treatment. So there are some people who are doing a good job.
Those same people have told me there are gaps in the system. The Rochester mission that I visited said, “Listen, we can handle this type of population, but what I can’t handle is the severely mentally ill, and there’s no solution for them right now, and I can’t be everything to everyone. So I’m excited about your proposal, because we need to solve that gap in the system.”
I’ve spoken with nurses at hospitals who tell me that hospital ERs have now become de facto shelters, de facto psych wards, de facto jails sometimes, because they have violent people coming in. That’s why assaults at New York City hospitals have increased 46%. That’s why nurses are speaking out about workplace safety. And they want a solution that doesn’t involve just dumping everyone into the ER.
Nicole Gelinas
Mamdani just recently said he would continue working with a homeless provider that has indeed had systemic problems. Should that be his choice, to continue working with this provider despite these known problems, or should the AG step in and say, “No, you cannot operate in this manner anymore”?
Saritha Komatireddy
I think the AG’s role is to identify when fraud or corruption is occurring and to stop that. That depends on the specific facts. So if that’s one person in an organization that we need to take action against, then that’s one person. If it’s the entire organization committing that fraud or corruption, then we need to take action against the entire organization. It’s going to depend on what the facts show.
But my goal is to have shelters, but to have them be safe and effective. It’s not my goal to shut down every homeless shelter in the state. To the contrary, I want to make sure that we have homeless shelters where the homeless feel comfortable going there. I’ve gone to the encampments here, Syracuse, elsewhere. I’ve talked to the homeless. I’ve asked them, “Why do you choose to sleep out on the street in 5-degree weather instead of go to a shelter?” And they say it’s not safe.
And you look at the reports, and that’s substantiated. Homeless shelters have become hubs for crime and drugs. Homeless shelters have documented cases of physical and sexual abuse. This is a real problem. It’s not fair to the homeless. It’s not fair to the communities. It’s not fair to the taxpayers who are actually paying taxes, as New Yorkers are compassionate people and want to take care of others.
Alyssa Katz
To follow on Nicole’s question, you have said not only that you want to audit and investigate homeless services organizations, you want to investigate all of them, which I think is what you said, including, I suppose, the ones that you’ve said are doing good work, as far as you know. The Charities Bureau is very powerful, very important, and this will clearly largely fall under their jurisdiction. How do you justify, one, putting those really significant resources to audit and investigate all of them? I mean, what else would you do with that bureau, with whatever men and women power you have left over?
Saritha Komatireddy
So there’s about 104,000 charities in New York, and the Charities Bureau currently receives financial filings from every single one of them, or is supposed to. It also has the authority to review conflict-of-interest transactions, dispositions of assets and other parts of their operations.
So one of the problems that I’ve heard a great deal about is that the Charities Bureau is extremely slow-moving. I hear about this from lawyers across the state and individuals at nonprofits. I think we need to take a look at how they’re allocating their resources.
I think a lot of this is paperwork requirements that don’t actually make charities more well-functioning. It’s not clear if this is just bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake or a unit that has a goal. The goal should be, we need to make sure that charities are accomplishing their mission, particularly when those charities are funded by taxpayer money. Not all charities are funded by taxpayer money, obviously. A number of them are funded by private donations.
But we’ve had a growth in New York of charities that are essentially government agencies outside of the oversight of the government: totally funded by taxpayer money, employees that make more than what government servants make, not subject to the oversight of the legislature, not subject to the background checks that you usually have for when you sign up for government service. And so it doesn’t surprise me that we have this entire sector now that’s not well-regulated. And I do think we need to shift focus to make sure we’re protecting taxpayer money until we solve that problem.
Alyssa Katz
And why commit to having an audit from the attorney general when part of the paperwork requirement is that all these charities file audits that are commissioned from independent auditors? Are you saying that those audits are invalid or corrupt somehow?
Saritha Komatireddy
We’ll use the audits that already exist, and the comptroller has audits of some of them. So I think it’s important to use the work that’s there. What I’m saying is, let’s make sure the work is there. There’s also instances, for example, in Buffalo, where it turns out that a particular charity hasn’t filed any paperwork with the AG’s office for seven years, and no one said anything.
Ben Max
Did you ever look at AG Schneiderman’s investigation into the Trump Foundation, speaking of the AG’s office and the Charities Bureau?
Saritha Komatireddy
Not in detail.
Alyssa Katz
And what other targets would you be looking at? You mentioned homeless shelters. Just within the charities sector, is there a realm of charity you would be looking at, or is it just kind of, you’re going to be waiting for tips and reports?
Saritha Komatireddy
I think a priority of mine is to solve the homelessness crisis, and so that is the first area that I would prioritize. And I’m happy to receive any feedback on if there are additional areas where people think that there’s a need to take a particular look. Like I said, there is a charity — there were a couple of nonprofits in Buffalo earlier this year where there was an outcry from the public about a lack of oversight. They were beloved charities. People want those charities to continue. They don’t want them to shut down, and they’re worried that they can’t continue because of financial malfeasance. The goal of the Charities Bureau should be to help these charities help our communities — not to shut them down, but to actually help them accomplish their mission. And I want to make sure that the Charities Bureau does that.
Myles Miller
The state is largely run by Democrats in various places, and if you were to take office, you have to work with them. Can you talk about what it was like to work with Anne Milgram, who is by all accounts a very well-known Democrat, who presided over the DEA?
Saritha Komatireddy
Yes, I have great respect for Anne. I will tell you that when she reached out and asked for me to be her chief of staff, I was honored to be asked. She reached out for one simple reason. I didn’t know her personally. I didn’t have any political connection. She asked her agents who was a prosecutor that they respected, and her agents pointed her to me. I think it is a great sign of a leader when they hire people based on merit. That’s what I’m asking New Yorkers to do in this election. She wanted to have a well-regarded prosecutor as her chief of staff to help make sure that cases move forward, and that was a large part of what I did as chief of staff.
Ben Smith
…A drug question, since you spent time with the DEA: How’s marijuana legalization going?
Saritha Komatireddy
In the state level?
Ben Smith
Yeah, or nationally. However you’re sort of watching it.
Saritha Komatireddy
Well, here’s what I would say. We live in a democracy, and if a majority of people want marijuana to be legal, I respect that. I think at the federal level, if that’s what Americans want, we need to do it through an act of Congress, because it’s the most straightforward way to do it. Once you do that, you can also take into account whatever safeguards need to be put in place to make sure that people, to the extent they’re using it, are doing so safely.
So one of the biggest issues we have right now, we have record levels of ER admissions, people who are suffering from cannabis hyperemesis, cannabinoid-induced psychosis. And the reason for that is because we are seeing marijuana with THC levels that are super high. We have gotten to a place with the synthetic drug crisis where marijuana used to have maybe 3, 4% THC levels. Now you find marijuana with 90% THC levels. It’s extremely potent. It is not the marijuana from the ’70s, and people need to know that. People need to understand it.
And there may be a role for the government or a government agency to regulate THC levels, just like people regulate alcohol levels in beer and wine, just like people regulate nicotine levels. And so that’s a conversation. My focus is always safety. Again, we live in a democracy. If folks want marijuana to be legal, I will respect that. I do think that you have to —
Ben Smith
Sounds like you don’t love it.
Saritha Komatireddy
I don’t want my kids using it. But you know…
Ben Max
New York legalized it. Is that OK? Should that be — you’re calling for a federal answer, but New York’s approach, would you try to change that law?
Saritha Komatireddy
In terms of New York legalizing it, like I said, a majority of New Yorkers want it to be legal, and I respect that. I do think you have to inform New Yorkers about what they’re taking. I think you have to make sure that the materials are labeled with how potent the chemicals are. We should have a conversation about whether we should limit the potency. We should have a conversation about not marketing it to kids. They’re currently marketed as gummy bears, because there’s so many unlicensed vendors that are selling products made in China, imported here, and there’s no understanding or information about what’s actually in those products.
I actually spoke with, I believe, the first woman-owned marijuana — licensed marijuana vendor in New York City. Wonderful woman. I ran into her in Brooklyn. And she was talking to me about the need for the AG’s office to actually help make sure that if we’re going to do this, let’s do it safely. Let’s do it in a way that everyone understands what’s in those packets. And let’s do it in a way that’s regulated.
Juan Manuel Benítez
Do you agree with New York City and New York state being a sanctuary city and a sanctuary state?
Saritha Komatireddy
So it’s really, really important to find a way forward on this issue, because we are in a situation where I think many New Yorkers are upset with how things are currently being handled, and they’re upset for different reasons. I firmly believe that we can find common ground on this, because I’ve lived it. When I was a federal prosecutor under President Obama, we did this in a very simple way. If there was a criminal here who was convicted or arrested for a state crime, and they’re in police custody, and they’re being released, and they’re here illegally, we would hand over custody to federal officials at the jailhouse door. I remember those cases.
Ben Smith
So whether or not they’ve been convicted.
Saritha Komatireddy
That’s right.
Ben Smith
There’s no presumption of innocence in this context.
Saritha Komatireddy
There is always a presumption of innocence in the criminal case. The immigration case is separate, obviously. And in those situations, when I worked those cases, that individual stayed in the country until the criminal case was over.
Juan Manuel Benítez
But do you agree with the current policies that govern New York City as a sanctuary city and New York state as a sanctuary state? Do you agree with that?
Saritha Komatireddy
I think we should have policies —
Juan Manuel Benítez
Do you agree with it?
Saritha Komatireddy
I’m telling you exactly where I agree and I don’t agree. I think we should have policies where if an individual is in local police custody because of a crime, and they’re here illegally, and they’re being released, they should be handed over to federal officials at the jailhouse door. That accomplishes two things. It prevents violent criminals from being released into the community. It also prevents the feds from going into our communities. And that’s what New Yorkers want to prevent. We can actually accomplish both of those things.
Juan Manuel Benítez
Do you want local enforcement to work more closely with ICE enforcement?
Saritha Komatireddy
I want the handover of a state criminal to happen at the jailhouse door so that we don’t have altercations in our streets.
Juan Manuel Benítez
Do you want local police to be enforcing immigration law?
Saritha Komatireddy
It’s not the role of local police to enforce civil immigration law, but that’s not what this is about. This is about violent crimes and what’s happening right now in New York. And this is something that New Yorkers…
Ben Max
But not every handover is over an alleged violent crime, right? There’s a lot —
Saritha Komatireddy
No, that’s what I’m talking about. I’m talking actually —
Ben Max
You’re talking only on an alleged violent crime?
Saritha Komatireddy
The handovers happen when a crime has been committed in the state. Otherwise, that person is not in NYPD custody.
Ben Smith
Well, but —
Saritha Komatireddy
NYPD is not taking people into custody for civil enforcement violations. They never have, and they never will.
Ben Smith
But people are acquitted all the time. People are arrested and released.
Saritha Komatireddy
Sure.
Ben Smith
I don’t know if anybody here has had that happen to them.
Saritha Komatireddy
Not in my cases.
Ben Smith
But I guess I think that the thing that people are wrestling with, who probably did like the Obama policy because the Obama ICE operated somewhat differently from Trump’s, was that when you hand over somebody who’s been picked up for jaywalking or murder or whatever and is facing trial, they wouldn’t necessarily be sent to a detention camp in Alabama. You know, that’s obviously the difference here, right?
Are you comfortable with what happens after someone who is innocent until presumed guilty — presumably, although usually guilty, etc. — are you comfortable with what’s happening to them after you turn them over? Or is that just not on — you just feel like that’s — you’re washing your hands of it?
Saritha Komatireddy
No, I think we need to have the criminal case play out. I had cases where this happened. I had a child sex offender who was arrested, and we had him in criminal court, went to the arraignment, and for whatever reason, actually against the law, in violation of the Adam Walsh Act, he was released from criminal custody.
He was also here illegally, and he was placed in ICE custody. He was in ICE custody until eventually the federal criminal court — so the federal district judge reversed the magistrate judge and brought him back, remanded him under the federal criminal case. But in either event, he would have stayed in custody until the criminal case was over. We did that criminal case. We went all the way to trial. A jury convicted that individual, and he’s doing his time in federal prison.
Josh Greenman
When you hand a person over at the jailhouse door to this ICE, do you believe that their intent is to wait for the criminal case to play out at the state level before they decide whether to deport the individual?
Saritha Komatireddy
It should be.
Josh Greenman
Is that what they do?
Ben Smith
I mean, isn’t that kind of the problem? That seems like that’s what everyone in your position is wrestling with right now, even if they kind of agree with you on what you ought to be doing.
Saritha Komatireddy
I think we’ll have to take a look at the cases. I think what people are wrestling with right now is that there’s no handover. If you could actually —
Ben Smith
They don’t trust the people they’re handing them to.
Ben Max
But on violent crime — New York City’s sanctuary law has carve-outs for violent crime. There’s 170 crimes where you go forward with the case, and then it’s upon conviction and serving the sentence that would then be that handover.
Saritha Komatireddy
Two weeks ago —
Ben Max
You can always cite one example of this or one example of that.
Saritha Komatireddy
It’s not one example. It’s happening all the time. Two weeks ago, we had two individuals who were here illegally. They were arrested with burglary tools and on other offenses. They were released right away because of our catch-and-release bail laws. Then they go on to try to rob an off-duty cop, and they stab him 10 times. There is no reason that crime should have been committed. Those individuals, first of all, should have been held pretrial.
Ben Smith
Burglars should be held pretrial?
Myles Miller
On burglary tools? Possessing burglar tools?
Saritha Komatireddy
Depending on their history. Those individuals in particular had a history. And yeah, I think that they should have been held if they’re about to commit a violent crime. They’re about to commit burglary. Guys, they’re about to commit burglary. If you want to prevent people from being victimized, you need to stop them before the crime occurs.
Josh Greenman
Is burglary defined as a violent crime?
Saritha Komatireddy
Yes.
Josh Greenman
Why?
Saritha Komatireddy
It’s breaking and entering.
Ben Smith
Wait, but hold on, people — so you remand them, or are they allowed to make bail? I guess I’m curious, this seems like a big broadening of what we’re doing with just general white-collar criminals.
Saritha Komatireddy
There’s two issues.
Ben Smith
In hindsight it’s obviously easier.
Saritha Komatireddy
Fair enough. In that situation, there’s two issues. One is, the individual judge needs to have the discretion to be able to determine whether they think this person is a risk to the community. In that situation, I would have liked the judge to make that determination based on the totality of the facts and the circumstances. But under New York’s bail laws, the judge does not have that discretion. Now, to your point, maybe that judge would have decided to remand, or maybe they wouldn’t, depending on the specific facts of that case and that person’s record.
And so let’s go to step two. After they are released, that person was here illegally, should have been handed over at the time of release, should have been handed [over] at the jailhouse door.
Josh Greenman
And if they had been handed over at the jailhouse door, having been arrested for burglary, isn’t it a fair assumption that the Trump administration would have moved to put them in a detention facility far away and/or deported them to a third country or the country from which they came?
Saritha Komatireddy
I don’t know that that’s a fair assumption. In my experience as a federal prosecutor, we let the criminal case play out.
Juan Manuel Benítez
Do you agree with the policy of undocumented immigrants getting driver’s licenses in the state of New York?
Saritha Komatireddy
That’s not really within the scope of the attorney general’s office. I haven’t taken a position on that.
Josh Greenman
Would you defend it?
Ben Max
They only went forward with that law after the attorney general’s office reviewed it. There was a whole thing between the Cuomo administration — and they were actually worried about the possibility of the Trump administration getting access to the records, so there was a whole review done. They actually, this was an instance they leaned on the attorney general’s office. But maybe you haven’t reviewed it.
Saritha Komatireddy
I understand that, and it’s the kind of situation where I’m sure the attorney general gave legal advice in the role of counsel to the state. I would want to look into the reasons for that. I’m sure there were specific reasons and nuances in making that decision.
Ben Max
But you don’t have an opinion on that law?
Saritha Komatireddy
Sitting here today, I don’t.
Josh Greenman
I really wanted to ask about Cornell, because you talked a lot about safety. What is your view of what the role of the attorney general should be in that particular case?
And then also talk more broadly about campus sex climates, whether there’s any broader role. And Title IX is a very, very complicated arena, but what do you think the right way to strike a balance is, of keeping young women in particular safe on campuses, but also respecting the rights of the accused?
Saritha Komatireddy
Sure. So I think you all know, during my time as a federal prosecutor, I also prosecuted sexual assault cases. They’re very serious cases. They require serious prosecutors. One of my cases involved a series of horrific sexual assaults. I put a man in prison for that, for life. So I know firsthand what these cases entail, and I’ve talked to the victims, and I’ve talked to the witnesses, and it’s very, very important that the person in charge of that case approaches the case with fairness and impartiality.
Obviously, Tish James has not done that. She has already prejudged the case. A number of you in the press have called her out on that: The New York Times, the New York Magazine, The Boston Globe.
In terms of what the attorney general’s office’s role is, I think this is a good example of the absence of the attorney general in the criminal law enforcement space being a problem. The real question you should be asking is, where was AG James two years ago? Two years ago, the Tompkins County DA decided not to do his own independent investigation. Now, if you create a system and a culture in New York state where the attorney general, who is the chief law enforcement officer of the state, actually acts like it, you will have a culture of checking in with your DAs, having an open line of communication, being a resource.
In that kind of situation, the AG two years ago should have called up the Tompkins County DA and said, “Listen, I understand that Cornell did its own investigation, but that’s Cornell. As the DA, you should do your own objective, independent investigation. I’m not telling you how to come out, but you should do an investigation. If you need help — if you need a sex crimes prosecutor, a forensic expert, other resources — happy to send those to you. Or if you don’t want to do it for any reason, I’ll ask the governor for a referral, and we’ll do it.”
But for the purpose of having confidence in the case, for the purpose of public trust, for the purpose of ensuring that these eight individuals whose lives and futures are in your hands are treated fairly, you should have an independent investigation. And I think the absence of the AG for two years is very telling, and the fact that they only step in a month before an election, and now this case is incredibly politicized — it’s a disservice to everyone involved, and it’s a disservice to the public.
Nicole Gelinas
I just had a quick follow-up on charities. You mentioned the million-dollar salaries twice. Should we have a cap on nonprofit salaries? And this was a Spitzer issue as well, with the New York Stock Exchange. And should the nonprofits be subject to FOIL?
Saritha Komatireddy
Oh, interesting. That’s a very interesting question.
So I don’t have a view on sort of arbitrarily setting a cap for nonprofit salaries. My concern when I hear about million-dollar CEO salaries is that it seems to be a red flag when those organizations are not producing results. We also have situations — documented situations — where a CEO of a nonprofit then starts for-profit companies that his nonprofit then contracts with. It’s obvious self-dealing. So to me, those are red flags and a reason to investigate and understand whether there is outright fraud happening, whether it’s mismanagement, and what we can do about it to make sure that taxpayer dollars are going to help the homeless as they are intended to do.
I think the FOIL question is an interesting question. I think it actually points to one of the issues that we were discussing earlier, which is we essentially have some of these nonprofits that are fully funded by taxpayer money — are essentially government agencies that are not subject to the scrutiny that government agencies usually are. I think that’s a good point.
Ben Max
Do you think we need a bigger public sector, then, and to sort of eliminate a lot of this contracting out?
Saritha Komatireddy
You know, I did meet someone who runs a homeless shelter and works for the state. It’s very unusual. Almost every homeless shelter in the state is run by a nonprofit, but there’s two or three that are not. And I think that’s a good conversation to have. I talked to him. I was up in Franklin County. I talked to him at length about how he runs his shelter system. I think it depends on the needs of a particular county. Rural areas have different needs than urban areas. But I think we have to understand first what’s happening in this sector and make better decisions about how it should be structured.
Alyssa Katz
And by the way, I do think that Cuomo did attempt to cap nonprofit executive compensation. I think there may have been legal challenges. It was a long time ago.
OK, so my question is, you’ve proposed an Office of Civil Commitment, I believe, to deal with serious mental illness, taking advantage of new state law that allows for easier commitment. My question for you is, if you get elected, [you] would be in the opposition party, right? I don’t know when the last Republican attorney general served in — do we know when the last —
Ben Smith
You don’t think Blakeman is going to win?
Alyssa Katz
You never know. Never know. But so my question is, you talk about building an apparatus of local residential treatment centers. How would you do that as an attorney general? We don’t control any of the levers that would actually build projects that would take years to execute.
Saritha Komatireddy
So first of all, in terms of the actual powers of civil commitment, we don’t need new laws on that. There were new laws passed on this just last year in Albany with bipartisan support that expanded the civil commitment laws. Mental Hygiene Law, Article 9 says you can bring someone inside if they’re a danger to themselves or others or cannot take care of their own basic needs. So I do think there’s already bipartisan consensus that we need to have those powers. Those powers are in the law.
Now we need someone to use those powers. The question is, how are we going to use those powers? And this is where it really is a collaborative effort. I look forward to working with everyone, Democrat or Republican, to deal with this issue. I will tell you, I have spoken with mental health advocates at NAMI [National Alliance on Mental Illness]. I’ve spoken with the author of Kendra’s Law. I’ve spoken with the folks at the Dutchess County Stabilization Center, which is largely regarded as a success story of a place that has been able to fill the gap that currently exists, where people are falling through the cracks because there’s nowhere to go. And I’ve spoken with people across the state, Rochester, Syracuse, about how to deal with these issues.
The one place where there is consensus among law enforcement, among nurses, among mental health advocates, firemen, first responders, is that we need leadership on this issue, that we need more psych beds, and that we don’t want to go back to the institutionalization of the ’70s. But that doesn’t mean we want to just leave everyone abandoned on the streets. We need to create something.
And I think the area of consensus is to build residential treatment centers — small residential treatment centers, 100 beds or less, dispersed throughout the state. When I talk to law enforcement officers that pick up someone who’s having a mental episode on the street, and they have to drive that person somewhere, they tell me sometimes the nearest place is two or three hours away. It’s unacceptable. It doesn’t work. We need to have small places spread around the state where people can have three meals a day and a warm bed at night and access to treatment.
And I actually think there already is bipartisan consensus around that. We just need someone who’s going to show leadership on the issue, help stitch together the different approaches that are currently happening in the state, and make sure that no one falls through the cracks.
Ben Max
Over the last decade, one of the major focuses out of the governor’s office and the attorney general’s office, heightened after Roe v. Wade was overturned, has been reproductive rights. Did you agree with the overturning of Roe v. Wade? Did you agree with New York’s current reproductive rights laws? And right now being litigated is the Shield Law — there’s challenges to New York’s Shield Law. How would you take that on if you were attorney general in a couple months?
Saritha Komatireddy
So I’ve spoken about this. I spoke about this at the debate. Obviously, I have personal experience bringing kids into this world and dealing with the complications that can be involved with that, and I very much respect New York law on this. New York law protected a woman’s access to abortion even before Roe v. Wade. That protection is now enshrined in the New York Constitution. I respect that law. I’ll uphold and defend that law. And I think it’s important to be consistent.
Juan Manuel Benítez
Do you agree with it?
Saritha Komatireddy
I told you, I think it’s New York law, and this is the thing about being the attorney general —
Juan Manuel Benítez
Do you personally agree with it?
Saritha Komatireddy
I personally respect that law, and I think we need to uphold and defend the law.
Juan Manuel Benítez
And Roe v. Wade, what’s your take on Roe v. Wade?
Saritha Komatireddy
New York law protected access to abortion even before Roe v. Wade, and it does now.
Juan Manuel Benítez
But Roe v. Wade is a national issue. You worked in the federal government. What’s your take on Roe v. Wade?
Saritha Komatireddy
I’m not running for Supreme Court. I’m not running for national office. I’m running for New York attorney general. And I think it’s really important to focus on the issues that actually affect New Yorkers. New York law protects —
Ben Max
But that’s directly related to the Shield Law, right? Because Roe v. Wade was overturned, so therefore New York passed a Shield Law that’s now being challenged by states that outlawed abortion.
Saritha Komatireddy
I understand, and I’ll defend that law.
Ben Smith
You’ll defend that law?
Saritha Komatireddy
I’ll defend that law.
Akash Mehta
…On a different topic: Letitia James introduced legislation to create a private right of action to sue corporations for unfair and abusive practices. That was stripped out by the legislature. And in the city, Mamdani is now trying to again institute that private right to action. Do you think private citizens should be able to sue corporations for unfair and abusive business practices?
Saritha Komatireddy
I do. You know, New York currently has a False Claims Act that’s similar to the federal False Claims Act. It’s underutilized. But right now, New York citizens have the ability to pursue fraud in the government — and similarly, fraud and misuse of funds in the government. Similarly, I think it makes sense to enable citizens to pursue fraud and misuse in corporations.
The bigger issue is that this is actually the job of the attorney general. This is one of the core functions of an attorney general in the consumer protection space, is to make sure that you don’t have corporations engaging in abusive practices. So it’s telling to me that there’s a desire or a need to have private citizens do that. I think the attorney general should also be more aggressive in that area.
Ben Smith
You clerked for [Supreme Court Justice] Brett Kavanaugh. His reputation is for being a very good mentor to very high-powered clerks, basically. Curious what you learned from him then, what you’ve learned from his jurisprudence, what you learned from his confirmation hearings.
Saritha Komatireddy
So I clerked for the justice when he was on the D.C. Circuit, right after law school. And I will tell you, he is the hardest-working person that I know. He is extraordinarily detail-oriented. He looks at every single thing submitted in the record. He reads every brief multiple times, and he demonstrated by example what it means to really follow the facts and the law. He really cares about the record, and he really cares about getting it right. My first opinion that I worked on with him, we went through more than 100 drafts. That is the kind of attention to detail that I think a good lawyer applies to their cases, and that is my takeaway and how I’ve tried to conduct myself in my cases.
Ben Smith
Did his confirmation hearings change how you see anything — see politics, see Washington? How did you sort of feel about that? It was such a galvanizing moment for a lot of people.
Saritha Komatireddy
You know, I always kept my eye on the ball during those hearings. Obviously, I know him personally, and so I thought that it was important to focus on the man I know. And I respected him because he has always been, like you said, a friend and a mentor to me, and the allegations that were lodged against him were inconsistent with the man I know.
Nicole Gelinas
So having studied her career more closely than anybody else, what would you say is Letitia James’ biggest accomplishment? And can you rank the last five AGs from good to bad?
Saritha Komatireddy
Interesting question. Ranking the last five AGs from good to bad, I would rank them in reverse chronological order, by how much they went after crime. And I’m going to ignore their personal misconduct for a minute when I answer this question, because that obviously changes the calculus. But if you just focus on their work, I think you see a progression of people who — with Vacco, was aggressively going after crime as crime; with Spitzer, also a former prosecutor, going after crime and fraud; Cuomo doing the same thing; I think Schneiderman doing the same thing, but in that order, in terms of results and effectiveness.
It’s a little hard to tell, because when Tish James took over as attorney general, she took down all of the prior year-end reports, and so you don’t have direct data to compare. The only things on her website are her own year-end reports. But that’s my perception of it, from studying them from the public record. And your other question was?
Nicole Gelinas
What is her biggest accomplishment as AG?
Saritha Komatireddy
I actually do think the surveillance pricing — the actions she’s taken to try and keep surveillance pricing under control are important. I think when you see a threat, you have to get ahead of it, and that is one instance in which she has tried to get ahead of it. It’s a relatively new practice that’s being experimented with, and I think we need to make sure that people are not victimized by profiling.
Ben Smith
Well, thank you so much for coming in.
Saritha Komatireddy
Thank you. Thank you all.
