Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. informed his staff Friday morning, after telling The New Yorker's Jane Mayer in an interview published soon afterward, that he won't seek a fourth term and plans to leave office on Dec. 31. "There's nothing worse than a politician who doesn't know when to leave," Vance, 66, told Mayer, implicitly contrasting his departure to the long, long tenure of his storied predecessor, Robert Morgenthau, who retired at age 90 after 35 years in office.
Vance's decision means he has nine months to decide whether to bring charges in the largest case of his career, the potential prosecution of former President Donald Trump and his associates on a host of tax, banking, and insurance fraud charges. And if he and his grand jury do decide to file charges against Trump, as many knowledgeable allies believe they will, the actual prosecution would fall to his successor, Mayer notes. "Eight Democratic candidates are campaigning for the job, and, given the city's liberal leanings, the victor of the Democratic primary, in June, is all but guaranteed to win in November."
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