What brings Adrienne and Zohran together? Defending Tish James

“We speak with one voice today,” New York City mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani said at a press conference Friday morning, condemning the indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud. “This is a blatant miscarriage of justice. This is a shameless act of political retribution.”

The chorus that delivered that message was chosen intentionally. The Mamdani campaign, which organized the presser, reached out to female elected officials and other leaders to stand in solidarity with James. (James was the first woman elected to the position of state attorney general in New York, and is the highest-ranking woman of color in the state.)

Participants included Rep. Nydia Velázquez, Assembly Members Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, Phara Souffrant Forrest, Monique Chandler-Waterman, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Council Members Crystal Hudson and Farah Louis and former mayoral candidate Maya Wiley. 

And the message delivered was clear: that President Donald Trump is targeting James as retribution for her pursuit of civil fraud charges against his business organization. Trump has publicly pressured the Department of Justice to prosecute James, along with other of his perceived political enemies.

“This should alarm every American who cares for our democracy. This prosecution is part of a much larger authoritarian agenda that includes militarizing the National Guard, silencing free speech and targeting political opponents,” Velázquez said. “We have to stand up to this. Tish James stood up, and now we must stand with her.”

The event also reanimated themes of the spring’s Democratic primary for mayor, as Council Speaker Adrienne Adams stood alongside her former rival for what aides indicated was the first time since the June primary. Adrienne Adams is close with James, who cheered and endorsed her run for mayor. Adams at times expressed frustration with Mamdani’s primary campaign. On the debate stage, she asked Mamdani whether he thought he was more qualified than her to be mayor, and she was resistant to a cross-endorsement with him. After he won, she offered a tepid endorsement. But on Friday, Adams thanked Mamdani for organizing the press conference, calling him the “the only leader in this race for mayor who has called the sisterhood together to stand up for strength, to stand up in truth, to stand up in fire and dignity for our Attorney General, Tish James.”

And as she and other mayoral candidates – including Mamdani – did during the Democratic primary, Adams also went after Andrew Cuomo, who is continuing his bid for mayor as an independent candidate in next month’s general election. In a statement appearing to respond to the indictment on Thursday night, Cuomo didn’t mention James or Trump by name, instead broadly criticizing the political weaponization of the law. There’s no love lost between Cuomo and James, but the statement was criticized as needlessly vague, setting Cuomo apart from Democrats who were quick to jump to James’ defense.

“Andrew Cuomo, if you are too afraid to speak her name, let me give you a helping hand,” Adams said of Cuomo’s statement on Friday. “Donald Trump is still pulling the strings in your vocal cords.” 

In response to the press conference, the Cuomo campaign sent a second statement that did mention both James and Trump. “The weaponization and politicization of the justice system is wrong no matter which side you are on – period. It is wrong when Trump’s DOJ does it or when a Democrat does it, and it must be universally condemned,” Cuomo’s statement said, adding that the DOJ was weaponized against him during the COVID-19 pandemic, linking to a story about the investigation of deaths in nursing homes. “It’s wrong that it appears to be happening with (Attorney General) James and Former FBI Director James Comey – it is part of why people have lost faith in the justice system, the cornerstone of our democracy.”

Mayor Eric Adams has also declined to jump to James’ defense. He didn’t comment on the indictment until he was asked at an unrelated press conference on Friday. He advised everyone to “let the process play out.” Then he quickly swerved to criticize media coverage of his own indictment on corruption charges, which were dropped by the Trump administration. When asked a follow-up about whether he saw this as weaponization of the DOJ against Black politicians, as he alleged his own indictment was, Adams again criticized reporters. “Many of you who covered me during that time were salivating at the thought that Eric will go to jail for 33 years. So stop asking me about ‘What do I think about what’s going on now.’ I want to know what did y’all think about when my life was destroyed in the city. And I wish I had a mic so I could drop it right now.”