JAIL THE BUM
Blaz joins call for charges against ex-AG Gov taps special prosecutor in abuse case Suffolk DA opens additional investigation
THE PUBLIC dismantling of ex-state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman took less than 24 hours, a fast and freaky plunge from powerful prosecutor to potential perp walk.
Schneiderman’s dramatic fall from grace was capped off by Gov. Cuomo’s appointment Tuesday of a special prosecutor to investigate allegations that the state’s former top lawman physically assaulted four women.
Cuomo, who was among the first to call on Schneiderman to resign, tapped Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas for the job.
Singas “will investigate, and if warranted, prosecute, any and all matters concerning the public allegations against Mr. Schneiderman, as reflected in The New Yorker article dated May 7, 2018, titled ‘Four Women Accuse New York’s Attorney General of Physical Abuse,’ ” Cuomo said in a letter.
Hours earlier, Mayor de Blasio called for criminal charges against the disgraced lawman in the wake of The New Yorker report that the hypocritical #MeToo advocate Schneiderman had slapped and choked them.
“It’s a moment of reckoning — and now that reckoning has come to him,” de Blasio said of Schneiderman, a fellow Democrat who had portrayed himself as a champion of women’s rights.
Asked if he should be charged criminally, the mayor said, “Based on what I’ve read, yes.”
“It is just as disturbing as it possibly could be,” he said of the allegations. “And it was horrifying, and it was disgusting, and it was unacceptable in every way.”
The NYPD and the Manhattan district attorney’s office had launched a dual investigation into Schneiderman, 63, whose law-and-order persona was shattered by brutal revelations in the article by Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer.
On Long Island, Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini announced his own probe into allegations that one of the assaults occurred in his jurisdiction after a night of Schneiderman’s heavy drinking.
Cuomo said the special prosecutor’s involvement will “displace and supersede” Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr.’s probe.
Cuomo’s letter noted Vance had a possible conflict of interest — Schneiderman’s office was already investigating Vance.
That probe focuses on Vance’s decision not to prosecute accused serial sex offender Harvey Weinstein in a 2015 groping case involving an aspiring actress.
In his letter, Cuomo noted there was “at a minimum” an appearance of a conflict.
“There can be no suggestion of any possibility of the reality or appearance of any conflict or anything less than a full, complete and unbiased investigation. The victims deserve nothing less,” Cuomo wrote.
Vance cried politics and shot back that the only conflict was created by the governor when he ordered the AG to investigate the Weinstein case. “The action, occurring on the very day your primary opponent announced her campaign for governor, was viewed by some as politically motivated,” Vance wrote in a letter to Cuomo. Further, he said, because Schneiderman resigned, and a special prosecutor outside the AG’s office will take over the Weinstein case, there’s no longer any conflict. “I view the district attorney’s editorial commentary as both inappropriate and misguided, given the ongoing investigations,” the governor’s lawyer Alphonso David said, giving Cuomo the last word. NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill declined to speculate on the possible charges against Schneiderman. “These are very serious allegations,” he said. Schneiderman — whose resignation became official at the close of business Tuesday — was a no-show at his Manhattan office for his last official day in the job.
The two-term incumbent, who had been up for reelection in November, remained in seclusion and issued no other statements after stepping down just three hours after the magazine piece appeared. He maintained he never assaulted anyone, and had merely “engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity.”
The quartet of accusers leveled detailed charges of physical abuse, threats and harassment against Schneiderman, who was portrayed as a cruel, hard-drinking, prescription drug-abusing brute.
Accuser Michelle Manning Barish, in a Twitter exchange with actress Rose McGowan, credited the Hollywood star for her courage in taking on Oscar-winning producer Weinstein.
McGowan’s fearless public stance persuaded Manning Barish to speak out about Schneiderman.
“Because of your bravery to speak truth to power and face your perpetrator, you have given so many women the strength to use their own voices,” tweeted Manning Barish. “Bravery is contagious; but truth is unstoppable.”
McGowan responded, “You and your fellow survivors are a large feather in the Arrow of Truth.”
Schneiderman’s staff was stunned by the allegations, with no hint of the impending disaster until the media calls started flooding the office Monday night, according to a source.
Also stunned were several women’s groups, who had thought of Schneiderman as a powerful ally.
“This was someone who many of us held up as a supporter and champion of the fight against gender violence,” said Judy Harris Kluger, executive director of Sanctuary for Families, which aids domestic violence victims. She stood beside Schneiderman when he announced a settlement last year with a hospital that had been billing rape victims for exams. “A tremendous betrayal. There’s no other way to put it,” she said.
De Blasio, asked if he’d sensed even an inkling of darkness in Schneiderman’s private life, replied, “Of course not.”
Experts dismissed Schneiderman’s claims that role-playing was behind his aggressive behavior when “romancing” his sexual partners.
“Not a single one of his accusers ever consented to being slapped, hit or subject to any of the other behaviors described in this article,” tweeted writer and behavioral scientist Caroline Orr.