Debate full of AG smack talk
Zeph, Maloney trade shots in 4-way fight
The four candidates for attorney general faced off in their final debate Thursday night — one co-moderated by a man who knows a little something about leading a prosecutor’s office.
Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara grilled the quartet — Public Advocate Letitia James, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout and former Gov. Cuomo aide Leecia Eve — in a debate he co-hosted with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer at Cooper Union.
But the main fireworks of the evening came from Teachout and Maloney, after she knocked him for having voted in favor of rollbacks to the Dodd-Frank Act, which imposed regulatory measures on Wall Street. Maloney fired back, calling Teachout “unhinged.”
“I don’t question that Zephyr Teachout cares about these issues and is a good person,” Maloney said. “I have seen the good Zephyr — this is not it; this is the Attack Zephyr who wants to win a campaign.”.
The next question concerned a lawsuit that Teachout filed against Maloney for transferring campaign cash from his congressional account, which she has called an illegal contribution.
“OK, look, that lawsuit was brought this afternoon and it was thrown out nine minutes later,” he responded.
“I’m a little surprise you would ask that question,” Maloney added, going on to note he’d already spoken to Lehrer about it before the debate. “What we did is by the book, and it’s chapter and verse and it’s as transparent as hell.”
Teachout argued the case had not been thrown out, and noted that hearing dates had been set.
“I do think as a lawyer, you should know the difference between a case being thrown out and going forward,” Teachout said, taking another dig.
As in earlier debates, the candidates seemed to focus their attacks on Teachout, noting that she’d only recently been admitted to the state’s bar and insisting she’d not lived up to her vows to forego corporate donations.
James, meanwhile, was asked about accepting campaign cash from the same landlords who appeared on her much-publicized lists of the city’s worst. She said she would not “unilaterally disarm,” and put herself at a disadvantage, by rejecting money.
“As an African-American woman,” James said, “I have consistently had a difficult time raising funds.”
Bharara built a reputation as a crusading prosecutor, but his first question to the candidates focused on knowing when they ought not to investigate, given that the simple act of opening an investigation can ruin lives. He asked the four to explain how they would “guard against a rush to judgment,” whether it be against President Trump, a regular citizen or a corporation.
“How much smoke, if any, does there need to be?” he asked.
The candidates seemed to focus their answers on Trump, arguing that there was plenty of smoke.
“In the case of Donald Trump, for instance, we already know indisputably that he is violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution,” Teachout said, referring to the clause that prohibits officeholders from taking gifts from foreign heads of state.
Teachout added that she’d also rely on “newspaper reports” and “reports from private citizens.”
Eve, too, said there was plenty of evidence to go after Trump’s charity: “A foundation whose board of directors hasn’t met in 19 years, you don’t have to do a lot of fact-finding,” she quipped.