Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the district attorneys from Manhattan, Nassau and Suffolk Counties joined one another on the same podium Thursday to pledge their cooperation in the criminal investigation of former state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is accused of abusing and harassing four women.
The show of unity comes after back and forth between Cuomo’s office and Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance over who would handle the investigation into the allegations, which were first reported in a New Yorker article late Monday.
The vaunted Manhattan DA’s office would normally be the obvious choice to lead such an investigation, particularly because many of the alleged crimes took place in the borough. But in March, well before The New Yorker story came out, Cuomo asked Schneiderman to investigate the District Attorney Vance's handling of another set of sexual assault allegations—those levied against Harvey Weinstein in 2015. Some women’s groups suggested it would be a conflict of interest for the Manhattan DA to investigate the man who had been investigating him.
On Tuesday night, Cuomo appointed Nassau County DA Madeline Singas to be special prosecutor in charge of the Schneiderman investigation. Cuomo said the choice was to avoid even the perception of a conflict of interest.
Vance responded with a letter questioning the legality of the move and drawing parallels to the federal government, where he alleged President Donald Trump’s statements and actions “jeopardize the independence of our criminal justice system.”
That prompted a blistering response from Cuomo’s office. The governor’s Counsel Alphonso David wrote back to Vance that the DA’s “original actions and omissions in the Harvey Weinstein matter caused the distrust of women’s organizations. That distrust is your creation, not ours.”
At Thursday’s press conference, Cuomo praised Vance and said he had total confidence in the Manhattan DA. In turn, Vance said he had issues with the process by which Cuomo appointed the special prosecutor but that a back and forth over process did not serve the victims.
Vance said his office issued subpoenas almost immediately after The New Yorker article broke, and will turn over any information it receives to Singas.
Singas has been a prosecutor for 27 years. She was a founding member of the Queens district attorney’s Domestic Violence Bureau. In the mid-2000’s, she led a new Special Victims Bureau in Nassau County. Singas said she’s formed a team with more than 125 years of combined experience handling such cases to take on a potential case against Schneiderman.
Singas wouldn’t discuss her strategy but said there are a number of domestic violence-related charges her attorneys could pursue, including harassment, assault, kidnapping and strangulation. She also said the office is investigating if Schneiderman misused his office in committing any crimes.
One issue will be the statute of limitations on some of the alleged crimes. For misdemeanors the limitation is two years and for felonies it’s five years, Signas said. She declined to say if any of the women whose stories were in the article have made a formal complaint.