A fired New York attorney general staffer says Letitia James threatened him with civil and criminal action, then sent detectives from her own protection detail to repeatedly bang on his front door, all because he refused to destroy documents he calls evidence of political targeting against President Trump.
Daniel Wiesenfeld, who worked in James’ Investor Protection Bureau before he was let go last month, fired back by email Monday. He told James flat out he would not hand over or destroy any “confidential and privileged” materials. He even attached a photo of a detective’s business card that had been jammed into his front door as proof of her office’s pressure campaign.
“I am in receipt of your September 18th letter threatening me with ‘professional discipline, as well as civil and/or criminal action,'” Wiesenfeld wrote, adding that he also received a follow-up letter on September 30th demanding he confirm the destruction of the documents by 5 p.m. that day. Real subtle, Tish. The email also went to Kumiki Gibson, the general counsel of the attorney general’s office, just so there’d be witnesses to the whole thing.
According to reporting on the Letitia James whistleblower situation, Wiesenfeld earlier sent an agency-wide email to roughly 2,000 staffers claiming his supervisor ordered him to find and pursue crimes committed by people affiliated with Trump. That email was deleted. “If you believe Trump is using the [Department of Justice] attorneys to prosecute his enemies and further his political interests, you should find it equally troubling that Tish [James] is doing exactly the same thing,” he allegedly wrote.
This Letitia James whistleblower story just shows how crazy the lawfare has become in politics.
He also made clear he’s not backing down. “These documents are simply evidence and your threats will not compel me to destroy such evidence,” he wrote. “If anything, carrying out your threats by bringing this to a legal forum will make this information public.” In other words, go ahead and sue him. He’ll see her in court and bring everything with him.
Wiesenfeld isn’t the only former staffer with complaints about James. Sofia Quintanar, a deputy press secretary who joined the office in 2020 and left in 2021, filed a lawsuit against James, the attorney general’s office, James’ campaign, and former chief of staff Ibrahim Khan. Quintanar claimed Khan forcibly kissed her outside a Brooklyn bar during a 2021 campaign fundraiser and that the office shielded him from consequences. Another former employee made similar accusations against Khan, and an outside review substantiated the allegations before Khan resigned in 2022. James eventually said, “I thank the women who came forward, and I want to assure them that they were heard and that I believe them.” Better late than never, apparently.
Quintanar told the New York Post, “I find it just appalling to see how the office handled this publicly.” The lawsuit noted that James continued employing Khan despite his “known propensity to sexually harass and to commit sexual assault and batteries.
What happens next depends largely on whether James follows through on her legal threats against Wiesenfeld, which would, as he cheerfully pointed out, drag all this into open court. The lawfare campaign against Trump already failed to keep him out of the White House, and nobody involved has faced accountability yet. Share your thoughts in the comments below or on social media, because this one’s far from over.
