Attorney General tells Assembly committee state is safer, cites major recoveries and multistate lawsuits

The Attorney General appeared before the Assembly Judiciary Committee to present a brief overview of his office's work and to answer lawmakers' questions.

In opening remarks, the Attorney General said his primary mission is to keep residents safe and pointed to recent crime‑trend data as evidence of progress: the state recorded historically low totals for shootings over the past two years, auto theft declined and opioid overdoses fell. He credited coordinated law‑enforcement work, targeted prosecutions of serial violent offenders and newly funded programs for much of the improvement. "My primary mission is to keep the residents of our state safe," he said.

The Attorney General told members his office has secured more than $1 billion in civil recoveries and settlements that he said have helped the department and state operations. He described a string of multistate and state suits aimed at preserving federal funds and challenging federal actions that, he said, unlawfully froze or cut money the state relies on. He told the committee his office recovered or protected roughly $22 billion in federal funding in recent litigation, and said his two guiding questions before filing a case are: "Is someone breaking the law, and are they hurting the residents of New Jersey?"

On litigation targeting technology companies, the Attorney General said New Jersey has led or joined lawsuits against major social‑media platforms, naming TikTok, Meta and, recently, Discord. He framed those cases as efforts to hold companies accountable for harms to youth mental health. "We led national lawsuits against TikTok and Meta," he said, and added that New Jersey was the first state to sue Discord for harms to children.

Throughout the hearing lawmakers pressed the Attorney General on budget growth in the Department of Law and Public Safety. The Attorney General attributed part of the departmental spending growth to new programmatic responsibilities (including the Office of Alternative and Community Responses) and to recoveries and federal funds that flow through his office. He said the department has proposed nearly $50 million in reductions consistent with the governor's mandate and offered to provide a detailed accounting through committee channels.

Lawmakers also raised concerns about the department's priorities, including a proposed reallocation of roughly $1 million to support litigation against federal actions. The Attorney General said those funds would largely support in‑house attorneys and argued that many of the suits protected substantial state funding; he said the office does not rely on outside counsel for those matters.

The hearing ended with the Attorney General answering questions on numerous operational matters, and with committee members requesting follow‑up details by letter to the chair.