Cy Vance Mad That He’ll Miss Out On Opportunity To Bungle Schneiderman Case
May 10, 2018 by admin
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Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance is hopping mad that Governor Andrew Cuomo has appointed Nassau County DA Madeline Singas to run the investigation into the allegations that former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman physically abused women. Cuomo, who knows a conflict of interest when he sees one, assigned the case to Singas rather than allowing Cy Vance’s office to take it on due to the appearance of a conflict.
Schneiderman had been investigating Vance’s gobsmackingly confusing decision to drop an investigation of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct even though the NYPD had caught it all on a wire. Preventing a man investigated by the AG from turning around and investigating the AG is just good sense.
Vance disagrees for a number of dumb reasons:
However, the only potential conflict here is one of your creation: your recent directive that the AG’s office review, among other things, a 2015 investigation of Harvey Weinstein by my office and the NYPD. As I made clear to your office at the time, this review is an unwarranted intrusion by an elected executive into a charging decision by an independent prosecutor. The action, occurring on the very day your primary opponent announced her campaign for Governor, was viewed by some as politically motivated. I have no idea whether or not that is true. But more important, and beyond politics, it violated the separation of powers that is intended to promote confidence in the independence of our criminal justice system.
Give Vance some credit for the sly dig at Cuomo’s shamelessly politically motivated timing, but this is honestly galling. The next criminal defendant in Manhattan should begin by saying, “honestly my cocaine smuggling ring was doing just fine before you guys showed up… if anything I’m the victim here.” It’s generally a bad look for public servants to denigrate oversight. Later in the letter, Vance clumsily likens Cuomo’s decision to assign the case to Singas to Trump’s threatening to fire Mueller. No dude. Cuomo’s decision was like hiring Mueller. This letter, to keep the analogy game going, is like demanding Sessions unrecuse himself.
Second, the purported conflict no longer exists. If the concern is that our investigation of Mr. Schneiderman might be compromised by the fact that his former office is reviewing the conduct of my office in the unrelated Weinstein matter, any such conflict was eliminated as a practical matter when Mr. Schneiderman himself resigned as AG. At that point he became a private citizen like any other we investigate, and he is no longer in a position to influence the actions of his former office, including the outcome of its review.
Stop insulting everyone’s intelligence, Cy. No one thought Vance’s investigation of Schneiderman would undermine his investigation of Vance, they thought Vance’s investigation of Schneiderman would look like a Spaghetti Western revenge arc. Cuomo’s protecting the investigation into serious charges from bearing the taint of a “witch hunt” — a charge the Vance office has picked up before. Vance’s presence on this investigation would bungle it from the get-go by undermining its legitimacy, even if the top-notch attorneys in his office did everything right. This is one of those times where you accept that discretion is the better part of valor and allow Singas to do her job for the good of the system.
Also, you know, it is pretty messed up to suggest that a woman shouldn’t be the one to investigate the claims against Schneiderman. This really comes off as “this is serious work for the boys to handle” and that’s wildly inappropriate.
Most importantly, charging and jurisdictional decision making should be left to independent prosecutors who are answerable to their local constituents. Interference with law enforcement investigations by an elected chief executive should always be viewed with great care, especially these days, given the propensity of our elected executive at the federal level in Washington to make statements and take actions that jeopardize the independence of our criminal justice system.
Maybe Vance is mad because he desperately needs a win over somebody, anybody, in a position of power. He’s a disproportionately draconian prosecutor… assuming you’re poor. If you’re rich and powerful, things tend to break your way. And even though he just got re-elected, the fact that a write-in candidate who announced on the eve of the election (and may not have even been eligible to serve as DA of New York County) could pull down as many votes as he did has to shake Vance’s confidence. New Yorkers aren’t happy with the optics of a DA’s office running on two justice tracks. Throwing the book at a former AG might lower the temperature of that hot seat just a bit.
But it looks like he’ll have to wait for an opportunity to restore balance to his reputation.
Cy Vance lashes out at Cuomo over Schneiderman decision [NY Post]
Cyrus Vance and the Myth of the Progressive Prosecutor [New York Times]
Think Manhattan DA Cy Vance Goes Easy on the Rich? Look at How He Prosecutes the Poor. [NY Mag]
Earlier: NY Attorney General Resigns Amid Accusations Of Physically Abusing Women
These Cy Vance Scandals Pile Up So Fast I Can’t Keep Track
Cy Vance And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month
Ivanka And Don Jr. Avoided Indictment The Old-Fashioned Way: By Being Rich
Liberal Prosecutors, Pious Shibboleths, And What Really Matters In Criminal Justice Reform
Grabbing Someone By the Privates and Getting Away With It (But Only If You’re Rich And Powerful)
‘Small Enough To Jail’ Looks At The Only Bank Prosecuted Over The Housing Crisis
Cy Vance Is Manhattan’s Dumb Hamlet
Which Bank Deserves Criminal Prosecution? The Smallest One, Obviously!
Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
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