{"id":5750,"date":"2025-10-17T00:27:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T00:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/5750\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T00:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T00:27:21","slug":"how-indicted-ny-ag-letitia-james-will-pay-for-her-legal-defense-which-could-cost-up-to-10m-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/5750\/","title":{"rendered":"How indicted NY AG Letitia James will pay for her legal defense \u2014 which could cost up to $10M: experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALBANY \u2013\u00a0New York Attorney General Letitia James could soak taxpayers for millions of dollars in legal bills as she fights her new federal indictment \u2014 but she says she won\u2019t be tapping into the $10 million state legal defense slush fund <\/a>set up for that purpose.<\/p>\n

Instead, she\u2019s turning to the national Democratic Attorneys General Association to cover her legal defense bills against the bombshell mortgage fraud <\/a>charges filed against her Thursday \u2013 which could run in the millions, according to experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all in, it\u2019s probably going to be in the range of $5 to $10 million,\u201d former prosecutor Neama Rahmani told The Post Friday.<\/p>\n

Tish James says she won\u2019t make taxpayers foot the bill for her personal legal defense after all, but she may be opting for an opaque legal defense fund instead. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

James has brought on high-profile defense attorney Abbe Lowell<\/a>, who could be billing over $1,000 an hour and taking a $1 million retainer fee based on the going rate for top lawyers, Rahmani said.<\/p>\n

But legal eagles also said that some lawyers may even take up the case pro-bono given its high-profile nature and some left-leaning attorneys\u2019 political convictions to stand up for James, a Democrat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of amazing attorneys would be happy to step up and do this for free,\u201d former prosecutor Duncan Levin said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for James\u2019 office told The Post Friday that she would not be tapping into the state fund to pay for her defense, after initially saying she would use it.<\/p>\n

Costs for James\u2019 legal defense could reach six figures, some experts speculate. Bonnie Cash\/UPI\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The state comptroller\u2019s office confirmed that none of the $10 million in the stash has been drawn.<\/p>\n

The provision to set up the fund \u2013\u00a0first revealed by The Post<\/a> \u2013 was quietly tucked into the state budget by Albany lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this year. <\/p>\n

GOP lawmakers railed against the measure<\/a> before it was rammed through by the Democratic-controlled legislature.<\/p>\n

James has denied the charges against her and claimed President Trump is targeting her for political reasons.<\/p>\n

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She\u2019s expected to make her first appearance in federal court in Virginia on Oct. 24.<\/p>\n

The AG is running for re-election next year and signaled her endorsement for Hochul\u2019s own bid over the summer \u2014 quashing the suggestion she\u2019d mount a primary campaign against the incumbent as she did briefly ahead of the 2022 gubernatorial race.<\/p>\n

James, who was first elected in 2018, makes $220,000 a year as attorney general.<\/p>\n

James\u2019 Brooklyn residence. Gregory P. Mango<\/p>\n

On her 2024 financial disclosure provided to New York\u2019s ethics panel, she reported also making between $5,000-$20,000 from her adjunct professor gig at Columbia University and $20,000 to $50,000 on her rental property in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

DAGA, a well-funded Dem AG\u2019s group, announced the creation<\/a> of its legal defense fund late last month that James and other officials could dip into.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear as to who is funding the effort and how much it has in the bank for James at this point. <\/p>\n

The website for people to donate to the DAGA legal defense fund seems to imply that it will not be a separate entity from the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cContributions will be used at DAGA\u2019s sole discretion to support its programs and activities. DAGA may use all or part of a contributor\u2019s funds, and disclose them as necessary, in states of its choosing,\u201d a blurb on the donation page reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cContributions to DAGA Legal Defense Fund will be used at the sole discretion of DAGA to support programs and activities related to legal efforts that promote democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the fund is effectively handled in-house, it means DAGA could lump the legal defense donors in with the hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions it already gets from hundreds of businesses and other individuals on public filings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DAGA didn\u2019t respond to questions from The Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY \u2013\u00a0New York Attorney General Letitia James could soak taxpayers for millions of dollars in legal bills as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4241,426,398,57,9,11,10,49,51,50,4281,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-5750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-albany","9":"tag-kathy-hochul","10":"tag-letitia-james","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-state-news","18":"tag-state-budget","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}