Exclusive | AG Letitia James steers $54M in taxpayer funds to criminal-friendly groups, GOP rival claims: Blatant misuse of funds

New York Attorney General Letitia James has steered more than $54 million in taxpayer-funded grants to six legal groups fighting to “dismantle public safety,” claims a bombshell analysis by her GOP election foe.Nearly one-quarter of the $226 million in grants that the attorney general’s office has shelled out since James took office in January 2019 have gone to anti-police or criminal-friendly groups, according to the report by Saritha Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor now running to try to unseat the Democratic AG.The candidate’s report focuses on the Homeowner Protection Program, or HOPP, set up in 2012 by James’ predecessor, former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, to help New Yorkers facing foreclosure after the subprime mortgage crisis a generation ago.The state’s AG has sole discretion over how its millions of dollars in annual outlays — once derived from mortgage settlement funds and now paid for through the state budget — is spent and who gets it.The Post last year reported that legal and migrant advocacy groups fighting to block New York from helping the Trump administration enforce US immigration laws had been awarded more than $600 million in taxpayer dollars from the city and state governments.“The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the state.She is supposed to be a trusted law enforcement partner,” Komatireddy said in a statement.“AG James is the opposite.

While law enforcement and many local DAs across the state are working hard with limited resources to combat rising crime, AG James is colluding with the criminals.”The controversial $54 million she awarded was divvyed up as per below:Komatireddy accused James of diverting other funds intended for affordable housing to anti-police groups.Nearly all of the “soft-on-crime” groups funded through HOPP spend more on non-housing services such as criminal defense and immigrant advocacy than homeowner protection or tenant advocacy, the analysis said.�...