Ari Hoffman, Associate editor of the New York Sun Interview

Ari Hoffman talks to Mendte in the Morning about the case by the DOJ against Letitia James and Andrew Cuomo’s future with his own legal issues.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, well, well, how the tide turns. Leticia James Andrew
Cuomo now facing investigation, possible charges. Let's talk about both
with Arry Hoffman, Associate editor of the New York Sun.
I know we've talked about Leticia James before, Ariy and
good morning, by the way.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good morning to you. And I noticed something over the
last couple of days. Remember how fiery she was when
they first talked about this, and she was going to
take them on and they're not going to scare me,
and you know, really a rousing speech that she gave
about how she's going to fight the Trump administration. Over
the last couple of days, that's all changed. She now

(00:43):
admits she made a mistake and she's very soft spoken
about it.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
She might be in some trouble, Airy, absolutely, And I
know it's the same thing. I think what we're seeing, Larry,
is the move from sort of pure politics and pure
rick to a real legal investigation. And we've sort of
tracked that, you know, on this program. You know, this
sort of criminal referral, which again is just a kind

(01:10):
of recommendation. Anyone can make a criminal referral, but once
that's taken up by the d O J. As it
has all of a sudden, we're in a different phase.
And really the turning point here was her lawyering up
right and retaining Abby Lole Hunter, Biden's lawyer, John Jonathan
Edwards' lawyer to fight these charges. So now, I mean, yeah,

(01:34):
she's a kind of politician and sort of you're going
to see some of that rhetoric, but right now she's
she's huddling with with Abby role and really trying to
sort of cut this off at the path. And it
seems like the strategy of her eyes that is, as
you've mentioned, sort of a little bit of contrition, a
little bit of apology and hoping they can kind of

(01:58):
massage this, uh that no indictment is handed up by
a grand jury.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, she admitted that she made a mistake when she
wrote down the Virginia as her primary residence, and she
claims that she sent an email and corrected that mistake,
and she was showing everybody the email too. Problem is
that's not the only mistake. The problem is she also
said that her father was her husband to get a

(02:25):
better rate, and she overestimated, or she overclaimed, i should say,
the number of units in her Brooklyn place to get
a mortgage. So it's not just one thing, and I'm
not sure. I mean, I'm getting to the point now
where I think she is going to end up in
court to defend this right.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
That's absolutely right that the Criminal Referral sent it on
those three misrepresentations. Now, what Tisha James is claiming marry
is well, you have to look at the whole picture, right,
you have to look at it whole list. But you
know that doesn't really obscure the fact that it's her
documents where those misrepresentations are accompanied by her spignature right

(03:09):
where she's attesting that you know that the reality is X.
And that's actually why that puts you in criminal jeopardy
regardless of the overall sort of you know, totality of
the evidence. Let's say just another thing. I mean, you
know that might work at trial, right to say, okay,

(03:31):
before a jury, okay, you know, well I kind of
made a mistake, but here's here's what you have to
look at. But that you know that doesn't want really
ward off the possibility that she's indicted, like the old saying,
as lawyers like to say, is a grand journey would
even invite and indicte a hamd Sandwich, Right, So getting

(03:53):
an indictment is not that difficult. This prosecutor has really
turned their mind to it.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, no, I think that she'd have a case if
it was just one mistake, but three, you know, that
shows that shows intentionality, I think after a while. And
so I didn't take this as seriously as I should
have at first, but now as I'm looking at it,
she's in some real legal jeopardy. What about what about

(04:19):
Andrew Cuomo? I mean, he absolutely lied to Congress. We
all saw that there's no way around that. Will he
be charged though, that's the question.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, it's a little bit of a different circumstance exactly
as you said, Larry, I mean, the sort of nature
of some of these Letitia James's mortgage representations are a
little bit murkys. I think you'd also have to say
what is past the statute of limitations, right, what can
actually be grounds for criminal charge and for a trial

(04:52):
with como it's a little bit different, as you said,
you know this testimony on the record. The issue there
is more sort of you know, will it be charged
these years later? And and so what are the political
ramifications of charging it, and is that something that the
d D will decide, will decide to do. I mean,

(05:14):
I think it's clear that Eric Adams is the the
candidate they prefer to work with, right, But you know,
Trump knows better than anyone that indictments can work unpredictably politically.
You know, it wasn't that long ago that Trump was
in a Republican primary and actually Alvin Bragg's case against him,

(05:35):
you know, really turbocharged to political process, right, So I
think that's something to watch too, is sort of you know,
if intervention in a in a primary from from Washington,
you know, what are the downstream effects of them? No?

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Absolutely, and it's it's amazing to your point. Andrew Cuomo
will put on an ad the very next day when
they were talking about it being referred to the Justice Department. Uh,
He've had an ad out saying look what Trump is
doing to me. So yeah, he sees this as a positive.
That's that's a great point. I did want to talk

(06:11):
to you about the Supreme Court. We'll have to do
it next week when you come back. Ariy Hoffman, Associate
editor of The New York Sun. Thanks again, Ery

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Thank you, ay well,