Democratic mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani accused Andrew Cuomo on Friday of attempting to appease President Trump within the wake of the Trump Justice Division’s indictment of state Lawyer Normal Tish James.
Mamdani known as the ex-governor out for omitting each James’ and Trump’s names in an announcement reacting to the fees, saying he performed it secure “because his narrow path to City Hall is paved by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump back in the White House.”
“He cannot speak his name lest he has permission already to do so,” Mamdani continued on the decrease Manhattan press convention. “If you are unwilling to do so today — if you cannot say Donald Trump’s name today — how will you stand up to him tomorrow?”
James and the previous governor have been at odds. Cuomo resigned after James’ workplace discovered he had sexually harassed a number of girls, allegations he denies. James additionally took him on for his dealing with of nursing properties throughout COVID, discovering his administration undercounted deaths in nursing properties.
Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information
New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James. (Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information)
Cuomo shares an overlapping rich donor base with Trump, and after Mayor Adams’ exit from the race, has made efforts to achieve out to town’s conservative voters.
“The weaponization and politicization of the justice system is wrong no matter which side you are on — period,” Cuomo mentioned in response to Mamdani’s assaults, including that it “appears to be happening” with James, in addition to former FBI Directer James Comey.
“It is wrong when Trump’s DOJ does it or when a democrat does it, and it must be universally condemned. I know firsthand as the White House weaponized the DOJ against me,” Cuomo continued, referring to a watchdog report that discovered Trump officers could have influenced the 2020 presidential election by means of media leaks focused at Democratic state governors.
The Justice Division introduced the indictment towards James late Thursday, charging her with financial institution fraud and making false statements to a monetary establishment for allegedly misrepresenting her plans for a property bought in Norfolk, Va., in 2020.
The five-page indictment, accuses the AG of claiming she would use the house as a secondary residence and as a substitute renting it to a household, and that the discrepancy may have netted her lower than $19,000 in ill-gotten beneficial properties over the lifetime of a mortgage mortgage. The AG, scheduled to seem in court docket Oct. 24, has denied the allegations and known as the case “a desperate weaponization of our justice system.”
Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information
Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press convention Friday in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information)
James has lengthy been a Trump goal, serving as one among his loudest critics since operating for AG in 2018 and later investigating and civilly charging him and his actual property empire executives for years of fraud.
On the press convention — outdoors the identical courthouse the place James took Trump to trial in her civil fraud case — Mamdani mentioned the indictment was at “attack on our city.”
“This is blatant miscarriage of justice,” the candidate, flanked by a number of politicians, all girls of shade, mentioned. “This is a shameless act of political retribution.”
Speaker Adrienne Adams lauded her former competitor within the Democratic mayoral major for gathering “the sisterhood,” of Black girls in metropolis and state management.
“She saw through you in the beginning, and she saw through you in the end,” the speaker mentioned of Cuomo. “And at the end of both spectrums, Donald Trump is still pulling the strings in your vocal cords.”
Then-former President Donald Trump attends his trial at Manhattan Legal Court docket on Could 30, 2024. (Picture by Mark Peterson-Pool/Getty Photos)
For his half, Mayor Adams opted towards criticizing the Trump DOJ’s indictment of James, solely saying at an unrelated press convention that he needs “the process to play out” earlier than turning to speak about his personal federal indictment and criticizing the press.
Adams’ corruption indictment, which accused him of taking bribes and unlawful marketing campaign money from Turkish authorities operatives, was dropped by Trump’s DOJ as a part of a controversial association this spring.
“Many of you who covered me during that time were salivating at the thought that Eric will go to jail for 33 years, so don’t start asking me about what do I think about what’s going on now,” Adams, who has maintained he did nothing incorrect, mentioned when requested for a response to James’ indictment. “I want to know what y’all think about when my life was destroyed.”
Trump’s 36-year-old former lawyer and aide, Lindsey Halligan, who he just lately appointed on an interim foundation as U.S. lawyer for the Japanese District of Virginia, was the one prosecutor whose title featured on the indictment. She had no prosecutorial expertise earlier than her appointment, and introduced the case towards James after submitting one other towards one other of Trump’s longtime foes, former FBI Director James Comey.
Initially Printed: October 10, 2025 at 5:46 PM EDT
