Anderson Cooper calls Letitia James’ 2018 Trump threat ‘not a great look’

CNN’s Anderson Cooper acknowledged that New York Attorney General Letitia James’ threat to sue President Donald Trump after he was elected in 2018 was “not a good look.”

“According to PolitiFactThe day after his election in 2018, Letitia James was asked by a community activist if she would sue President Trump. And he quoted: ‘Oh, we’ll definitely sue him. We’re going to be a real pain in the ass…He’ll know my name personally,’” Cooper recalled Thursday.

“I mean, that’s not a good look for someone who’s just been elected, who’s campaigning, who hasn’t looked deeply at any evidence,” he added.

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While CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin acknowledged that James’ 2018 comments were “inappropriate,” he argued that they were typical of “how our system works.”

“We live in a system in the United States where attorneys general and district attorneys — unlike almost every other country — are elected officials, politicians, and so they run for office by making political statements. That’s how our system works,” he told Cooper. “It’s not nice. I don’t think it’s a great system, but there’s nothing unusual about it.”

Toobin added that just because James “made inappropriate comments” about the president doesn’t mean he “will be accused of fraud years later,” and argued that criminal cases should “pass or fail on their own merits.”

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Cooper’s comments came amid a broader debate over James’ indictment by a federal grand jury on Wednesday on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.

New York Attorney General Letitia James hosted a town hall at SUNY Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York, on May 8, 2025. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Lindsey Halligan, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said James could face up to 30 years in prison per count, a fine of up to $1 million on each count and forfeit the sentence if convicted.

James said in a statement that the accusations were part of President Donald Trump’s effort to impose “political revenge at any cost.”

“The decision to fire a U.S. Attorney who refused to bring charges against me and replace him with someone blindly loyal to the president, not the law, is contrary to the fundamental principles of our country,” James said. “This is the time for leaders on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this blatant perversion of our justice system.”

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Earlier this year, the Justice Department launched an investigation into James for alleged mortgage fraud after James successfully won a civil lawsuit last year against Trump and his Trump Organization over allegations of faulty business practices.

President Donald Trump speaks to a meeting of senior U.S. military commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

Although James won the civil lawsuit against Trump, a New York appeals court threw out a $500 million civil fraud fine against the president in late August.

The New York Appellate Division overturned the fine after ruling that the irregularity was an excessive fine that violated the Eighth Amendment.

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Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.