Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., a longtime foe of former President Donald Trump, will not run for re-election to a fourth term in 2022 as a long list of left-wing candidates are vying to take his place.
“When I ran for this job in 2009, I said that a District Attorney’s responsibilities should extend beyond obtaining convictions in court, and that a 21st century prosecutor’s mandate is to move our justice system and our community forward,” Vance, 66, said in a statement on Friday.
MANHATTAN DA CANDIDATES RUN ON SOFT-ON-CRIME POLICIES
Vance’s office touted his focus on justice reform in a press release, saying it slashed total prosecutions by 58% and established programs for implicit bias review and equity and social justice.
Vance’s office also touted Trump v. Vance, in which the Supreme Court ruled that Trump was not immune to a subpoena from Vance over his financial and tax records, and People v. Weinstein, which led to the downfall of entertainment mogul Harvey Weinstein.
In this Friday Feb. 21, 2020 file photo, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr, foreground right, accompanied by Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi, left, leave Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial at criminal court in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
“I never imagined myself as District Attorney for decades like my predecessors,” Vance said in a statement. “I never thought of this as my last job, even though it’s the best job and biggest honor I’ll ever have. I said twelve years ago that change is fundamentally good and necessary for any institution. Having secured these lasting impacts in our communities, our public policy, and our crimefighting capacity, the time has come to open the pathway for new leadership at the Manhattan D.A.’s Office.”
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Vance is a Democrat, and the race to replace him is already shaping up to be about radical change as candidates embrace substantial sentencing reform, promise not to prosecute a host of low-level offenses and introduce plans for “decarceration.”
Fox News’ Sam Dorman contributed to this report.
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