Trump criminal probe ‘looms’ over DA polls
NEW YORK, May 23, (AP): Eight days after Donald Trump turns 75 next month, New York City voters will cast their last ballots in an election that’s sure to have consequences for the former president.
It’s not another White House run, but a vote in the Democratic Party primary for Manhattan’s next district attorney – the person who would likely end up handling prosecution if an ongoing investigation of Trump’s business finds criminal wrongdoing. The current district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, is leaving office at the end of the year, meaning there’s a good chance he’ll pass the two-year probe to his successor.
The matter of who will take over has taken on new urgency after the announcement this week that the state attorney general’s office had joined the DA’s Trump criminal investigation – a sweeping look at hush-money payments, property valuations, tax strategies, executive compensation and other dealings.
Solidly
In a solidly Democratic borough, the party’s June 22 primary is highly likely to decide the winner.
The eight candidates have made clear they’re not afraid of taking on the former president, but most have been cautious to stay away from overtly anti-Trump rhetoric.
“While I can’t say what I will specifically do without seeing all the facts and the evidence, if Donald Trump or any of the Trumps committed crimes in Manhattan, I will prosecute them,” said candidate Eliza Orlins, a public defender who once appeared as a contestant on “Survivor.”
“It is more vital now than ever, that the office of the district attorney be understood not to be a political office, that the district attorney not be perceived to be in bed with anyone,” said another candidate, Lucy Lang, a former assistant district attorney and former director of John Jay College’s Institute for Innovation in Prosecution.
Robust
The robust field includes three former prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office – Lang, Liz Crotty and Diana Florence – and two former federal prosecutors, Tali Farhadian Weinstein and Alvin Bragg. Three candidates have never been prosecutors, including Orlins, civil rights lawyer Tahanie Aboushi and state Assembly member Dan Quart.
No obvious frontrunner has emerged in the crowded field.
The Trump investigation, which the former president has decried as a “witch hunt,” carries major implications for his political future and the fate of his company.
Trump isn’t the only topic of discussion in the race, amid reignited concern over street crime and the ongoing debate about criminal justice and the role of prosecutors, renewed in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd a year ago. “At the beginning of the race, maybe last year, a lot of folks thought that Trump would be a primary talking point, but he doesn’t really seem to be the main issue in this crop of candidates,” said Christina Greer, political science professor at Fordham University. “He’s in a long list of issues, but crime and how the DA will prosecute particular cases seem to be the more prescient issues.”