Here’s a coincidence for you: On June 20, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign received a $25,000 donation from the law firm that used to represent Harvey Weinstein. On June 26, Cuomo quietly suspended an investigation into whether a Manhattan district attorney mishandled a 2015 allegation of sexual misconduct leveled against the disgraced Hollywood producer.
Curious indeed.
BuzzFeed News was first to report on the indefinite halt to the New York Attorney General’s Office’s investigation into whether Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. mishandled the 2015 allegation that Weinstein groped an Italian actress. Vance is heading prosecution on more recent sexual assault charges lodged against Weinstein, which were first reported by the New York Times and the New Yorker.
Of note: Weinstein’s former lawyer, David Boies, donated $10,000 to Vance in 2015 after the Manhattan D.A. declined to file sexual assault charges against the Hollywood mogul.
The governor’s office confirmed the suspension of its investigation of Vance only after news media learned of it from a sexual assault victim who had been interviewed by the attorney general’s office.
Journalist David Sirota, who has worked all over in left-leaning newsrooms, was the first to report that Boies’ lawfirm, Boies, Schiller & Flexner, which represented Weinstein in 2015, gave $25,000 to Cuomo’s campaign in June. Boies and his law firm have donated roughly $245,000 to Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaigns since 2009, according to Sirota.
“The suspension effectively shields Boies from scrutiny of any potential relationship between his 2015 donation to Vance and Vance’s decision not to prosecute Weinstein,” he notes.
The governor’s office now claims that the halt to the Vance investigation is only temporary, for so long as there’s a criminal case against Weinstein pertaining to more recent sexual assault allegations.
“Upon receiving a referral from the Governor, this spring the Attorney General’s Office commenced an inquiry into the handling of recent sexual assault investigations conducted by the Manhattan DA and the NYPD’s Special Victims Unit,” a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office told BuzzFeed News. “This summer, pursuant to the Governor’s office, we temporarily suspended our inquiry to avoid any interference with the District Attorney’s ongoing prosecution of Harvey Weinstein. We remain committed to conducting a comprehensive, fair, and independent review.”
However, as BuzzFeed’s Albert Samaha rightly notes, the current criminal case against the disgraced Hollywood mogul “could drag through the courts for months or even years. The probe of Vance’s conduct could be extended indefinitely.
Six days passed between Cuomo’s campaign receiving the donation from Boies, Schiller & Flexner and the governor sending a note to Attorney General Barbara Underwood ordering her office to suspend its investigation of Vance.
Also of note: Underwood is attorney general because her predecessor, Eric Schneiderman, resigned in disgrace in May following reports he sexually abused women.
