Harvey Weinstein Scandal Spurs Effort To Topple Manhattan District Attorney

NEW YORK CITY — Before this week, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance had an easy, unopposed path to a third term. But, in the wake of reports that his office didn't prosecute disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, a write-in campaign to unseat him has begun.

That campaign's current standard-bearer is Marc Fliedner of Bay Ridge, a Democratic Socialist and civil rights attorney who this year became the first openly gay man to run for Brooklyn district attorney.

Fliedner, 55, wasn't expecting to champion a second campaign, but his Twitter account started "blowing up" Tuesday with messages urging him to challenge Vance as a write-in candidate, he told Patch in an email.

"I don't have a lot of money or fancy friends, I don't owe anybody anything," Fliedner told Patch. "So I'm in a position to make fair and ethical determinations about right and wrong in the context of criminal justice without the potential for compromised judgment."

Also See: More Women Are Accusing Harvey Weinstein Of Sexual Misconduct

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Fliedner’s name won’t be printed on the Nov. 7 ballot, but his supporters can vote for him by writing his name on a blank line.

State law requires district attorney candidates to live in the county where they're running at the time they're elected, meaning Fliedner would have to establish residency in Manhattan on or before Election Day, state Board of Elections spokesman John Conklin told Patch.

Some high-profile left-wing figures started suggesting a write-in campaign against Vance, a Democrat, after The New Yorker published a recording Tuesday of Weinstein apparently admitting to groping Italian model Ambra Battilana in 2015.

The NYPD captured that recording and gave it to Vance's office, which decided not to bring charges against the powerful film executive who's reportedly been accused of sexual assault and harassment.

That revelation came less than a week after The New Yorker, WNYC and ProPublica reported that Vance's office closed a two-year probe of Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump in 2012 after receiving a $25,000 campaign gift from Trump family lawyer Marc Kasowitz.

David Boies, one of Weinstein's top lawyers, gave $10,000 to Vance's campaign two months after prosecutors decided not to charge Weinstein, the International Business Times reported.

Vance's office has defended both cases, saying investigators were unable to gather enough evidence to prove a crime was committed. Vance's chief deputy cast blame on the NYPD Tuesday for not getting enough proof to prosecute Weinstein for the groping. Vance told The New Yorker that he returned Kasowitz's money.

But that didn't convince Twitter user @ShowUsYourWork, an active Democratic socialist who spearheaded a social media campaign behind Fliedner. There's now "a whole groundswell" of support for the effort, with plans for canvassing and events, he said.

"The thing is that this is a national story, even though it's a local office," said @ShowUsYourWork, a Brooklyn resident who declined to give his real name. "The implications of corruption within the Manhattan DA's office go far beyond the rivers' edges here."

Fliedner placed third in a five-way Democratic primary for Brooklyn DA in which he decried campaign money's influence over prosecutors but won just 10.2 percent of the votes. Some on Twitter have suggested writing in Preet Bharara, the crusading U.S. attorney whom President Donald Trump fired, but Bharara hasn't expressed any interest in Vance's job.

Fliedner said he wants to "keep the conversation going" about corruption after the Weinstein and Trump scandals with his "purely grassroots and social media driven" campaign.

"The message people can't help but take away from such events is that rich white men can buy a 'get out of jail' card," Fliedner told Patch. "What about the poor folks, all the folks of color, the immigrants, the trans folks, the people with disabilities?"

Fliedner or any other write-in candidate is highly unlikely to beat Vance, an established name in Manhattan, where voters are "soldered to the Democratic line," said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran New York political strategist. Public Advocate Letitia James told reporters Tuesday that she still supports Vance and doesn't "understand the controversy."

"Cy Vance has spent every day since becoming DA in 2010 fighting for a safer and more just New York," Vance campaign spokesman Steve Sigmund told Patch in an email, touting the DA's fight to end the national rape kit backlog and his dismissal of 240,000 arrest warrants for low-level crimes.

"We're confident that voters in Manhattan will continue to recognize that record on November 7," Sigmund added.

But Sheinkopf said,"Those are not insignificant emotional arguments, so it’s likely a storm that District Attorney Vance will have to weather."

(This story has been updated with additional information from the state Board of Elections. Lead image by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)