PROVIDENCE -- It was a big, big week for R.I. Attorney General Peter Neronha.

•    On Friday, Oct. 3, AG Neronha announced the key victory in the multistage lawsuit against the Trump administration’s imposition of illegal conditions on grants for crime victims. As a result, the Department of Justice has now dropped its plan to impose illegal conditions on nearly $1.4 billion in Victims of Crime Act [VOCA] grants. “What does this tell us?” Neronha asked, and then answered: “The unlawful actions of this Administration are being recognized as such by the courts, and they are losing these lawsuits.”
•    On Thursday evening, Oct. 2, AG Neronha convened a meeting of a panel of primary care providers to talk about the current health care crisis in Rhode Island.
•    On Tuesday, Sept. 30, AG Neronha announced an agreement with Brown Health to dramatically increase primary care patient capacity. The agreement came as a result of the Attorney General’s decision to conditionally suspend his office’s investigation into the merger inot the merger between Brown University Health and Brown Physicians, Inc.

As part of the agreement, Brown University Health has agreed to take on 40,000 new patients by Dec. 31, 2028, and hire up to 27 new primary care providers. What’s more, Attorney General Neronha said: “These 40,000 new primary care patients will receive an appointment within 14 days.”

•    On Monday, Sept. 29, Attorney General Neronha co-led a coalition of 12 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit in Rhode Island’s federal district court to stop the Trump administration from unlawfully reallocating federal homeland security funding away from states based on their compliance with the administration’s political agenda.

“Federal emergency funding cannot be held hostage from states who are rightfully resisting the President’s unlawful attempts to force them to do his bidding,” AG Neronha said. “I hope Americans take note that this President and his Administration would rather endanger the lives of people across the country than obey the law and respect lawful policy differences.”

But the really big news was Attorney General Neronha’s announcement that he hd decided not to run for Governor in the 2026 election.

NERONHA: Well, I guess I am not done yet. For a guy who is announcing that he is looking for a little bit of a quieter life, it’s been kind of a crazy afternoon. Sorry I’m late.

ConvergenceRI: I am always patient, or try to be.    
NERONHA: you are. You are, not difficult to deal with, and I ma grateful for that.

ConvergenceRI: It sounds like you are feeling good about your decision not to run for Governor.    
NERONHA: I slept without interruption last night. (Laughter.) I wasn’t wearing my Apple watch, so I can’t tell you what my REM sleep was. But, I slept very well last night. I am very comfortable with the decision.

I kind of felt this pull, you know, of this responsibility, in many ways. I don’t want to overstate it.

You know, there is a path there, and you feel like you can do some good, and you’re getting some encouragement, but you have to decide whether it is right for you.

That job is just not a job I want to do. Not at this point in my life. If I were 10 years younger, maybe that would be different.

I want to spend my sixties really doing what I want to do. And that's not it.

ConvergenceRI: To me, that’s a wise decision. It sounds like you listened to yourself, and also to your family.
NERONHA: Yes, Sally was really confident that this was the right decision for me. I called her yesterday; I got out on my sailboat later in the afternoon. I got back to the mooring; it was nice to have some alone time. I was convinced by then that the right thing to do was do what I did -- to choose not to run for Governor.

I called her; I just wanted to make sure that we are on the same page. Sally is a very careful person. She said: "I want to make sure that I heard this right; you’re not running."

That’s right, I said. She said: That’s the right decision. I said: "OK. Good We’re committed." I called Blake [Neronha’s chief of staff] and I told him: get  ready to get the word out in the morning.

I took the day off. I went sailing again this morning early.  I did a couple of television interviews, but they had to come to Jamestown. I wasn’t putting the suit on and coming into work today.

 And right now, I am stuck in horrible northbound traffic, trying to get to the airport where I expect I will be late but that’s OK, it means that I have time to talk with you.

ConvergenceRI: How has your legal team responded to the vigilance required to keep challenging all the illegal actions by the Trump administration in federal district court? Are they as eager as you are in moving forward?    
NERONHA: Yes, I think they are. They all understand that the President is violating the law and that he is hurting Rhode Islanders. And more broadly, Americans. And so, they have warmed to the task. And, off they go.

ConvergenceRI: There was a great victory, I think. That you won. That was announced today. Restoring the full federal money for crime victims without any illegal conditions imposed by the Trump administration. You didn’t have to go to trial, but you won the victory.     NERONHA: We have been really fortunate in Rhode Island and the District Court. We haven’t lost a case yet.

The thing we have going for us is the administration’s decision-making is so, ah, what’s the word I am looking for, scattershot, that it almost always violates the Administration Procedures Act.