Trump legal investigation looms over Manhattan DA race – KIRO 7 Information Seattle

NEW YORK – (AP) – Eight days after Donald Trump turns 75 next month, New York voters will cast their final votes in an election that is sure to have ramifications for the former president.

It’s not another run in the White House, but a Democratic Party primary vote for Manhattan’s next district attorney – the person who would likely take law enforcement if an ongoing investigation into Trump’s business finds criminal misconduct.

Current District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. is leaving office later this year, which means there is a good chance he will pass the two-year investigation on to his successor.

The question of who will take over has taken on a new urgency following this week’s announcement that the Attorney General’s Office has joined Prosecutor’s criminal investigation – a comprehensive look at hush money payments, property valuations, tax strategies, executive compensation, and other dealings.

In a solid democratic neighborhood, the party’s primary code on June 22nd will most likely decide the winner.

The eight candidates have made it clear that they are not afraid to take over the former president, but most have been careful to stay away from overt anti-Trump rhetoric.

“Although I cannot say what specifically I will do without seeing all the facts and evidence, I will prosecute you if Donald Trump or one of the Trumps has committed crimes in Manhattan,” said candidate Eliza Orlins, a public defender who did it once appeared as a candidate on “Survivor”.

“It is more important now than ever that the district attorney’s office is not understood as a political office, that the district attorney is not perceived as lying in bed with someone,” said another candidate, Lucy Lang, a former assistant district attorney and former director of the John Jay College Institute for Innovation in Prosecution.

The resilient field includes three former Manhattan prosecutors – Lang, Liz Crotty, and Diana Florence – and two former federal attorneys, Tali Farhadian Weinstein and Alvin Bragg.

Three candidates have never been prosecutors, including Orlins, civil rights attorney Tahanie Aboushi, and State Assembly member Dan Quart.

No obvious front runner has emerged in the crowded field.

The Trump investigation, which the former president described as a “witch hunt,” has had a significant impact on his political future and the fate of his company.

Trump is not the only topic of discussion in the running amid renewed street crime concerns and the ongoing debate over criminal justice and the prosecution role that was renewed after the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd a year ago.

“At the start of the race, maybe last year, a lot of people thought Trump was going to be a key talk, but he doesn’t really seem to be the main problem in this group of candidates,” said Christina Greer, Political Science Professor at Fordham University. “He has a long list of subjects, but crime and the way prosecutors follow up certain cases seem to be the more cautious subjects.”

More than 155 homicides have been committed in the city since the beginning of the year, the highest number in that period since 2011. Other main categories of crime, including robbery, break-ins and crime, have largely remained where they were before the coronavirus pandemic.

The race could determine whether the next district attorney will continue criminal justice reforms. In recent years, drug law enforcement has been scaled back and fewer defendants have been incarcerated for long periods while they await trial.

Crotty has been collecting endorsements from law enforcement unions who she consider to be the most public safety-focused candidate. Other candidates have received support from reformist activists and organizations.

Vance’s office said he would continue the Trump investigation until the end of his term in office.

He hired former Mafia prosecutor Mark Pomerantz to help with the investigation and received eight years of Trump’s tax return in February, ending a protracted legal battle.

Vance’s former assistant district attorney Daniel R. Alonso, who is not a candidate, said it was important that the Trump case “stays in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing, who is competent, who is experienced, who is Judgment has and who does not think politically. “

“To be honest, I don’t think voters are focusing enough on this issue,” said Alonso.

The candidates have at least tried to telegraph that they will not be easy for those in power.

Orlins knocked on Vance for refusing to bring charges against Trump’s two oldest children, Ivanka and Donald Jr., in 2012 after investigating allegations that they cheated on customers on a Manhattan condominium project. Vance concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence of a crime.

“I think we might not be in the situation we are in – we might never have had a President Donald J. Trump – if Cy Vance had done this sooner, if he brought these cases and law enforcement didn’t would have refused. ” Orlins told The Associated Press.

Vance’s decision in the previous Trump investigation was one of several cases in his twelve-year tenure in which critics said he yielded to powerful interests.

Vance has been criticized for dropping rape allegations against French financier Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 2011, the ability to prosecute Harvey Weinstein in 2015, five years before his final conviction, and for contracting a well-connected gynecologist in 2016 a prison to avoid allegedly sexually abusive patients.

Bragg said he would do away with what he believed to be the Office’s “two judicial systems”.

Aboushi said she would “never put an ID card or bank account over the law”.

Crotty said, “The facts of your case matter, and it doesn’t matter how powerful the person is, it is how powerful your facts are.”

Farhadian Weinstein has touted her experience with complex employee cases. Florence has similarly spoken of her record of tracking down property and construction frauds, saying she is in the “best position” to continue the Trump investigation.

“I’m not intimidated by anyone,” Farhadian Weinstein said in an interview. “By law we are all the same, and that doesn’t change when you are in a position of power, including the power of the presidency.”

Quart said, “If there is evidence that a serious crime has been committed, I would certainly be prosecuted, and that would apply to the president as much as anyone else.”

__ __

Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak and send confidential tips at https://www.ap.org/tips