Vance: #MeToo? Gee, who knew?
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. claimed Thursday he had no idea how widespread workplace sexual violence was until the #MeToo movement gained momentum last year.
“I frankly was not aware of the extent to which workplace sexual violence existed, and perhaps I should have been. I did not understand the full scope of it,” Vance (inset) told Buzzfeed on Thursday.
He described the movement — in which a torrent of accusers has brought down heavyweights such as Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer and Al Franken — as a “revelation.”
In 2015, Vance said there wasn’t enough evidence to make a case against Weinstein in the alleged groping of model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez. Gov. Cuomo has ordered a state investigation into Vance’s handling of that case.
Vance has since brought the movie mogul up on rape charges in a pair of alleged 2004 and 2013 sex attacks, and predatory sexual assault charges in a third incident in 2006.
The probe hit a road bump when state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman resigned amid accusations that he assaulted three ex-girlfriends and a woman who spurned his advances. Interim AG Barbara Underwood has picked up the case.
Vance created a 15-person unit to deal with workplace sexual-harassment claims in January.