New York Attorney General Letitia James expressed shock Wednesday, saying her office “did not expect” Vice President Kamala Harris to lose the presidential election.
James and her office have been in a legal battle over a $454 million civil fraud judgment against President-elect Donald Trump, telling the Washington Examiner that she is “confident” her judgment will be upheld. Since then, Trump has won the 2024 presidential election against Harris, with James congratulating Trump on his victory Wednesday.
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“We did not expect this result, but we are prepared to respond to this result,” James said during a press conference. “And my office has been preparing for several months because we’ve been here before. We faced this challenge before, and we use the rule of law to fight back, and we are prepared to fight back once again.”
James concluded that her office and the state of New York would continue to oppose “injustice” and are prepared for any attempts at “revenge or retribution” by the president-elect. Trump has suggested several times on the 2024 campaign trail he would pursue retribution against the opponents in his legal battles, though he has also stated that this mindset “has to stop.”
James’s comments come amid reports that special counsel Jack Smith is planning to end both of his federal criminal cases following Trump’s victory. The president-elect was largely expected to order his Department of Justice to dismiss the cases once he assumed office on Jan. 20, though a source told Fox News the decision could come from Smith well before Trump takes his oath of office.
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Trump’s victory in the 2024 election became official Wednesday morning when he surpassed the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to win the presidency. The former president, who first won the White House in 2016 but lost reelection in 2020, is only the second president to win two nonconsecutive presidential elections, the first being former President Grover Cleveland.
It was confirmed Wednesday afternoon that Harris called Trump to concede the election, urging him to be a president for “all Americans.”