Anderson Cooper calls Letitia James’ 2018 Trump menace ‘not an excellent look’

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CNN's Anderson Cooper acknowledged that it was "not an excellent look" for New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James to threaten to sue President Donald Trump after she was elected in 2018.

" According to PolitiFact , the day after she was elected in 2018, Letitia James was requested by a group activist if she was going to sue President Trump. And she or he replied, quote, ‘Oh, we’re going to undoubtedly sue him. We’re going to be an actual ache within the a--. He‘s going to know my identify personally,’" Cooper recalled on Thursday.

"I imply, that’s not an excellent search for someone who has simply been elected, who has simply been campaigning, who hasn't even seemed, I suppose… deeply at any proof," he added.

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CNN's Anderson Cooper internet hosting "AC360" on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Screenshot/CNN)

Whereas CNN authorized analyst Jeffrey Toobin agreed that James' 2018 feedback had been "inappropriate," he argued that they had been typical of "how our system works."

"We stay in a system the place attorneys normal and district attorneys within the United States — not like nearly some other nation — are elected officers, are politicians, in order that they run for workplace making political statements. That is how our system works," he informed Cooper. "It is not fairly. I do not assume it is an excellent system, however there's nothing unusual about it."

Toobin added that simply because James made "inappropriate feedback" concerning the president does not imply that she ought to "get indicted for fraud years later," arguing that prison instances are imagined to "stand or fall on their very own deserves."

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Cooper’s feedback got here throughout a broader dialogue about James being indicted on prices of financial institution fraud and making false statements to a monetary establishment by a federal grand jury on Wednesday.

New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James hosts a city corridor at SUNY Westchester Group School on Might 8, 2025, in Valhalla, New York. (Spencer Platt/Getty Pictures)

U.S. Lawyer for the Japanese District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan mentioned James faces as much as 30 years in jail per rely, as much as a $1 million high-quality on every rely and forfeiture if she's convicted.

In an announcement, James mentioned the costs had been a part of President Donald Trump's effort to impose "political retribution at any value."

"His resolution to fireplace a United States Lawyer who refused to deliver prices towards me — and substitute them with somebody who's blindly loyal to not the legislation, however to the president — is antithetical to the bedrock rules of our nation," James mentioned. "That is the time for leaders on either side of the aisle to talk out towards this blatant perversion of our system of justice."

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Earlier this 12 months, the Justice Division opened an investigation into James for alleged mortgage fraud after James efficiently received a civil case final 12 months towards Trump and his Trump Group over allegations of defective enterprise practices.

President Donald Trump speaks to a gathering of prime U.S. navy commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (Evan Vucci/AP Picture)

Though James received the civil case towards Trump, an appellate court docket in New York threw out the $500 million civil fraud penalty towards the president in late August.

The New York Appellate Division overturned the penalty after ruling the disgorgement was an extreme high-quality that violated the Eighth Modification.