NY Attorney General Letitia James to speak at Mamdani rally in first appearance since her indictment

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NEW YORK (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James is set to speak at a rally for New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Monday — her first public appearance since being indicted on federal fraud charges related to her purchase of a home in Virginia.

“See you tonight, New York! Thanks for always having my back — now, let’s get out and win this election with @ZohranKMamdani,” James wrote on X, just hours before the rally at the United Palace theater in the Washington Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan.

The event is meant to kick off the final stretch of Mamdani's campaign ahead of the Nov. 4 election. The 33-year-old state lawmaker faces former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa in the race to succeed Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, who abandoned his reelection bid in recent days.

Mamdani has also been a vocal supporter of James, the city's former public advocate. On Friday, he joined other local Democrats in denouncing the federal charges the attorney general now faces, calling the indictment a “shameless act of political retribution" by President Donald Trump.

Last week, James — a longtime foe of Trump's — was charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution stemming from a house she bought in Norfolk, Virginia, for $137,000 in 2020.

Federal prosecutors say the mortgage James obtained for the purchase required the house to be primarily for her personal use for one year. They say James broke that rule by renting the house out to a family of three.

James and her lawyers haven’t answered questions about the home purchase, but in a video statement last week she dismissed the charges as “baseless.” She also decried the federal indictment as “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.”

James is expected to make her initial appearance in a federal court in Virginia on Oct. 24. If convicted of the felony charges, she would automatically relinquish her office under New York law.

Still, James has been fundraising off the indictment as she looks to reelection next year.

As attorney general, James sued Trump and his administration dozens of times. She won a large judgment against Trump and his companies last year in a suit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements. An appeals court overturned the fine, but upheld a lower court’s finding that Trump had committed fraud.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist who would be the city's first Muslim mayor if elected, has campaigned on making the city more affordable for everyday residents.

Trump has repeatedly railed against Mamdani, labeling him as a “communist,” while Mamdani has cast himself as “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare."