Letitia James has never met a microphone she didn’t like. When a New York appeals court wiped out the roughly $500 million penalty in her civil fraud case against President Donald Trump in August 2025, she said in a statement that the case “has merit.” Her instinct for a camera is well developed.
So last Thursday’s press conference surprised me. James stood with Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez to talk about illegal guns taken off New York’s streets. A New York Post reporter asked whether any of them had ordered prosecutors to downgrade gun charges so illegal immigrants could avoid deportation. Nobody offered an answer. Katz threw up her hands, and a voice asked for “any other on-topic questions.” Think of Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, minus the monotone. Anyone? Anyone?
Precision matters here. The question came from an interim staff report that the House Judiciary Committee released on Oct. 26. It makes allegations that no court has tested. It accuses all five borough district attorneys of favoring noncitizens and says the Bronx office encourages weighing immigration consequences in firearms cases, including through charges the committee calls legally impossible. It does not accuse James of ordering a single gun charge reduced. Katz’s office later told reporters it charges illegal-gun defendants with the highest count available. That denial belongs in the record, and it deserved a spot at the podium.
I’ve been deposed multiple times as an expert witness, and I’ve watched good lawyers handle hard questions. A clean answer arrives fast. “No” takes one syllable, and a state attorney general could fit it between breaths. I’m also the father of three boys. When I ask who broke the lamp and the room goes quiet, I don’t need a forensic team.
The question mattered because guns were James’s chosen topic that day. In February she filed a friend-of-the-court brief defending New York City’s sanctuary laws, claiming they “help keep our communities safe.” Limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement is a legitimate policy fight, and she’s entitled to her side of it. The committee says the New York City Police Department received nearly 10,000 immigration detainers in roughly a year and honored none. Cheer or wince, voters can handle that debate. They can’t judge whether gun cases got pleaded down when the officials in charge won’t say.
James’s defenders will say a reporter ambushed her with a partisan report, and no official owes an answer to every document. Fair enough. Partisan reports deserve skepticism, and James knows politicized prosecution firsthand. Federal prosecutors alleged she misled a bank to obtain favorable loan terms on a Norfolk house, reportedly occupied by a grandniece with theft convictions. A judge dismissed the case, and two grand juries declined to indict her again. The Justice Department is appealing. She pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent. Her office is also fighting a petition to remove her as special prosecutor in the Cornell assault investigation, where a defendant cites her post calling the accuser’s ordeal horrific and unacceptable. The defendants deny the allegations, she says only the governor can remove her, and I found no ruling. Even so, a gun safety press conference is where this question belongs, and the answer needed only one sentence.
THE MEDIA DOESN’T NEED TO LIE WHEN IT CAN JUST DELETE THE TRUTH
Three fixes would cost almost nothing. District attorneys should publish their written charging and plea policies on immigration, since taxpayers fund those offices. New York should release anonymized data showing how often gun charges get reduced in plea deals, and why. And any official who calls a press conference about guns should rehearse an answer to obvious gun questions. Congress should tie federal public-safety grants to that reporting.
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called sunlight the best of disinfectants. He meant public business, and a gun safety press conference qualifies. Cicero argued that the safety of the people should be the highest law. Officials who claim to guard it can spare 10 seconds to explain how. Letitia James has never been shy around a camera. Next time, she might try using one to answer.
Jay Rogers is a financial professional with more than 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and wealth management. He writes about issues in finance, constitutional law, national security, human nature, and public policy.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
