Preet picks DA fave
Backs ex-staffer Bragg for Cy’s gig in crowded ’21 field
Less than a year out from the 2021 race for Manhattan district attorney, high-profile endorsements are rolling in — and they’re not for the incumbent.
On Tuesday, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara endorsed his former employee Alvin Bragg for Manhattan’s top prosecutor job. Three-term incumbent Cy Vance Jr. has yet to announce whether he’ll run a fourth time.
“It’s hard for me to imagine anyone better prepared to be Manhattan’s next district attorney or with the qualities and perspective Alvin will bring to the job,” Bharara (near r.) said in a statement.
“I’m confident Alvin Bragg will make the DA’s office the leader it should be on criminal justice reform and find innovative ways to keep all of Manhattan’s neighborhoods safe.”
Bharara, whose office brought down crooked politicians from both parties, was controversially fired by the Trump administration in March 2017 after refusing to submit his resignation.
While working under Bharara, Bragg (far r.) prosecuted a FBI agent for lying. He’s currently suing the city on behalf of police reform advocates, including Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, and teaches at New York Law School.
At the state AG’s office, Bragg sued convicted film producer Harvey Weinstein and his company for the existence of a hostile work environment and the Trump administration over the national census. He also led a division that prosecuted police-involved killings.
Bragg has refused to take money from corporations, lobbyists or people with business before the office, yet has raised the most so far of all the nine candidates, reporting $353,431 in contributions during the last filing period.
If elected, the progressive reformer says he’d take an aggressive approach towards ending mass incarceration and overhaul the DA’s scandal-plagued sex crimes unit, among other proposals.
“Preet Bharara has been a mentor to me. He set a standard for excellence, fairness, and integrity as U.S. attorney, and I am honored to receive his endorsement to become the next Manhattan district attorney,” Bragg said.
While Vance’s plans to run again are unclear, in July he cited the coronavirus epidemic and national unrest following the police-involved killing of George Floyd among his reasons for stalling on the decision.
Another factor fueling speculation Vance might not run is the candidacy of Lucy Lang, with whom he’s had a close working relationship for years. Hired by then-DA Robert Morgenthau in 2008, Lang rose through the ranks under Vance, who promoted her to special counsel for policy and projects in the office.
The other candidates are veteran prosecutor Diana Florence, Assemblyman Dan Quart, former prosecutor Liz Crotty, ACLU attorney Janos Marton, former Brooklyn prosecutor Tali Farhadian Weinstein, civil rights attorney Tahanie Aboushi, and former Legal Aid attorney Eliza Orlins.