The Batavian
Howard B. Owens
July 23, 2026
Saritha Komatireddy, candidate for attorney general in New York, visiting the Media Center, sponsored by The Batavian, at the Genesee County Fair.
Photo by Howard Owens
Saritha Komatireddy, the Republican candidate for New York attorney general in November, said she isn’t afraid of anyone; she will enforce the law and uphold the Constitution; and she pledges to make New York safer for the state’s residents.
She also vowed to fight corruption at all levels of government.
Komatireddy spoke with The Batavian on Wednesday while visiting the Genesee County Fair, where she stopped by the Media Center in the Exhibition Hall.
Komatireddy spent 12 years as a federal prosecutor in New York, focusing on terrorism cases against al-Qaida and ISIS operatives as well as Mexican drug cartels. She also served as chief of staff of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and President Trump nominated her to a federal judgeship. She is married with four children and lives in Manhattan.
According to her campaign website, Komatireddy decided to pursue law school after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and spent more than a decade prosecuting leaders of al-Qaida, ISIS and Mexican drug cartels as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York, handling high-profile cases involving international terrorism, cybercrime, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, fraud and foreign public corruption. Her cases affected communities across the state, from New York City and Long Island to Buffalo and Rochester. As chief of staff of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the website states she helped oversee a 10,000-person global law enforcement agency.
The website also states she has argued before federal courts, led national security investigations and advised on foreign affairs, criminal law and cyber policy, and has received multiple Attorney General’s Awards and other national law enforcement honors. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and began her legal career clerking for then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She later served as counsel to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She is now a partner at the law firm Holtzman Vogel and teaches at Columbia Law School.
Komatireddy said her decision to run was rooted in concerns about safety under Attorney General Letitia James.
“Crime is up 26 percent. Drug deaths are up. Homelessness is up,” Komatireddy said. “We really need to use the AG’s office to solve these problems instead of having an AG who’s distracted by national politics and using taxpayer money to pursue personal vendettas.”
(Fact Check: A New York State Comptroller report showed New York’s opioid overdose deaths rose about 68 percent between 2019 and 2021; however, drug deaths have dropped significantly since the pandemic. On crime data, we can’t find support for her claim that it’s up 26 percent; most data shows year-over-year declines the past few years. New York is among the states with the largest homeless populations, and until 2024, it had among the fastest-growing homeless rates in the nation.)
She said she wants to prosecute crime and fraud, address homelessness and mental illness by building residential treatment centers, and make New York safer and less expensive.
Asked whether she felt daunted running for statewide office in a heavily Democratic state, Komatireddy said she did not.
“My race is not about red versus blue or Republican versus Democrat,” she said. “My race is about having a law enforcement professional as attorney general instead of a partisan politician, and that’s something most people can get behind and actually really want.”
She pointed to polling showing New Yorkers believe the state is headed in the wrong direction on crime. “They want normal back,” she said. “They’re tired of the crime. They’re tired of the politics.”
Komatireddy also dismissed the idea that being nominated to a federal judgeship by Trump could be a liability.
“I worked with everyone,” she said. “I was a prosecutor for 12 years. That means I worked under more than 10 U.S. attorneys and presidents of both parties. That’s my record. I work with and for everyone to make sure that Americans and New Yorkers are safer.”
Asked what the attorney general’s office can do about problems that are more cultural or systemic, Komatireddy pointed to what she described as anti-law enforcement sentiment coming from the top of state government.
“It starts from Letitia James, because she spends more time targeting cops than criminals,” she said. “You look at the way she organized her office — she assigned more people to the unit that investigates cops than the one that investigates organized crime, and that has an effect that demoralizes people who are in the police or in the sheriff’s offices. It makes recruitment harder and retention harder.”
She said an attorney general with a law enforcement background would change that culture.
“If you have an attorney general who’s from the law enforcement community, who law enforcement knows has their back, you’re going to turn around the culture,” she said. “You’re going to make sure people are more respectful on the street. There’s a way to do it. There’s a process, and you bring that culture back to one of respect, where people feel supported, and you’re going to make sure our police departments across the state are properly staffed.”
Komatireddy said her focus as attorney general would be on violent crime rather than broad, sweeping immigration enforcement, pointing to her time on a federal Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“I served on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and as part of that task force, we worked with FBI, DEA, local police, state police, every agency to go after the worst of the worst — truly al-Qaida terrorists, ISIS terrorists,” she said. “New Yorkers want all of our law enforcement focused on getting the worst of the worst, the violent criminals, out of our communities. So to me, this is not about immigration. This is about crime. We’ve got to focus on bringing down crime and use the tools at our disposal to do that.”
Asked whether she would push back if federal immigration agents targeted people who are not violent offenders, Komatireddy said she would follow New York law.
“I’m going to follow the laws in New York, and I’m going to protect New Yorkers,” she said. “New Yorkers have rights. Americans have rights, and it’s important to protect people both from violent crime and from the violation of their rights. That’s the attorney general’s job.”
She said the same standard would apply to the federal Department of Homeland Security.
“If someone’s violating New Yorkers’ civil rights, it’s the job of the attorney general to stand up, and that’s what I’ll do,” she said.
Komatireddy drew a sharp contrast between herself and James, who is seeking another term.
“The two of us couldn’t be more different,” she said. “I’m a law enforcement professional. I’m going to use the AG’s office to focus on keeping people safe and to tackle the problems New Yorkers are facing: crime, homelessness and fraud.”
She said James has used the office to chase headlines and suggested James may eventually seek a seat in Congress. “My focus is New York and keeping people safe,” Komatireddy said. “I live in Manhattan.”
Asked whether she would pursue corruption cases the federal government declines to prosecute, Komatireddy said she would, regardless of political party. She cited homelessness spending as an example, saying New York now spends roughly three times what it used to on homeless services even as homelessness continues to rise, and questioned where that money is going.
“My commitment is to take the politics out of public safety, to approach cases based on the facts and the law,” she said. “I’m not going to pick fights just to get headlines or pick fights because it plays to some political base. You’re not supposed to be a politician when you’re attorney general. You’re supposed to be a law enforcement professional.”
“I’ve been a prosecutor for 12 years, and I have never targeted anyone because of their political affiliation or party,” she said. “I think it’s wrong. I think it’s unethical, and I think New Yorkers do too. They want someone who’s going to be fair-minded and protect them, and that’s what I’ll do.”
Asked about immigrants who are following the legal process through the courts, Komatireddy said her family’s own background as immigrants informs her view.
“I come from an immigrant family,” she said. “I understand that there’s a process. My family followed the process, and it’s important that that process be available and transparent. So my focus is making sure that we actually protect New Yorkers, including immigrant New Yorkers, from violent criminals.”
She described visiting a Ukrainian family last week whose son fled the war and sought protection in New York.
“That kid fled violence, came to New York, was walking through his neighborhood park, and got assaulted and lost his eye,” she said. “He was beaten up so badly that he lost his eye. That’s an immigrant who was victimized by someone else who’s a violent criminal. I think we have to focus on actually prosecuting the violent criminals so that all of us can be safer, and that’s the goal.”
Asked whether the 14th Amendment’s due process and equal protection guarantees apply to people regardless of legal status, Komatireddy did not answer directly.
“I’ll follow the law, and I’ll uphold the Constitution, the federal Constitution and the New York Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court,” she said.
Pressed on whether she was afraid to take on powerful figures, including Trump, Komatireddy did not hesitate.
“I prosecuted terrorists,” she said. “I’m not scared of anyone.”