Gaetz Joel Valdez

(Archived from the original)

In the case of a former top aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Manhattan district attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. denied an indictment related to his anti-corporate trades defense tactics in the wake of the 2006 trades litigation settlement. In part, the prosecutor's decision to drop Vance's indictment hinged on the fact that allegations of fraud were based on faulty intelligence rather than proof of wrongdoing (because the case hadn't been fully investigated).

Vance's decision was a dramatic reversal of the standards for a district attorney who purports to be dedicated to protecting the rights of citizens while also prosecuting businesses. Although Vance would have been better known for trying criminal cases, most people never knew him when he was merely a prosecutor. So, as a grand jury probe into possible corruption in the New York attorney general's office proceeded, Vance turned to his high-ranking deputy and close collaborator, Manhattan DA Robert M. Morgenthau.

The appearance of conflict has little to do with that fact. Unlike the prosecution team in the new Abrams v. U.S. House insider trading case, this one was selected without the involvement of Bill Baroni or any oversight by prosecutors – effectively the same arrangement that guided the investigation into the machinations of Cuomo's chief political rival, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. That is because the former deputy D.A. now sits on the Senate judiciary committee, where he has another job: fixing Albany.

As soon as Vance was dismissed, he wrote up his own take on matters. A Times op-ed followed more than a month later calling for a change in the district attorneys' current approach to investigating mergers and acquisitions. The three-and-a-half-page missive ranting about corrupting government comes at an awkward juncture in the investigation, where claims of serious wrongdoing are nearing resolution — even in one of the wealthiest cities in the country. We caught up with Valdez to discuss what happened, how this came to pass, and what it might mean for the DA's office going forward.

You won't be the first prosecutor to make a similar speech, and you won't be last either. What does your predecessor say about this?

That's what we did originally right after this thing happened. The press speculated that the DA's office had found a scandal.