High-flying New York attorney general lawyer is FIRED after claiming Letitia James' right-hand man was racist towards black firemen

A top staffer at the New York Attorney General’s Office has claimed he was fired for trying to unmask misconduct by a chief prosecutor. 

Former Senior Enforcement Counsel John Oleske broke his silence Monday after being pulled from his post in October - insisting the maneuver was merely retaliation for two years of concerns about Chief Deputy Attorney General José Maldonado.

Appointed as one of Letitia James' first acts as AG, Maldonado is James' most senior staffer - particularly after the sudden resignation of Chief of Staff Ibrahim Khan on Friday.

Khan ouster came after an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct, after which a former aide filed suit against James claiming her office covered for Khan.

Oleske's claims, aired to The Daily Beast, allege a similar cover-up - one carried out by James' AG colleagues to hide Maldonado’s alleged involvement with multiple questionable ventures, as well as an ongoing, previously unreported suit filed by the city’s Black Firefighters Association.

Filed in 2020, the suit accuses Maldonado - who has risen through the ranks of New York’s legal sphere over the past three decades - of racism.

Viewed by the Beast, the filing claims he repeatedly took actions that 'blocked the advancement of African Americans' during his stint as associate commissioner of compliance at the New York Fire Department - a post he held from 2012 to 2014.

At the time, the fraternal organization was headed by then-president John Coombs - the person who made the claim in the previously unreported court document.

When approached by the Beast about the still-active suit, James' Office dismissed the accusation, telling the publication it was unverified and filed in a bid to support the certification of a class-action lawsuit that a judge ultimately refused to dish out.

That said, that's not the full extent of Oleske's claims.

More to follow...