DA Bars Donations From Lawyers With Conflicts

Manhattan’s district attorney says he will no longer accept campaign contributions from lawyers with business before his office, including those representing people being investigated or prosecuted.

The announcement by Cyrus R. Vance Jr. came after he faced heavy criticism for taking money from a lawyer who represented the Trump Organization in a fraud investigation and an attorney in another case. In response, Vance had asked the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School to make recommendations for how to vet donors to eliminate potential bias.

A center report released Monday calls for sitting district attorneys across the state to voluntarily adopt a “strict cap” of $320 for donations from lawyers appearing before prosecutors’ offices and $3,850 for their law partners for each election cycle. It also recommends adopting “blind fundraising” that would keep the names of donors secret from candidates.

Vance said his campaign “will meet and exceed these recommendations” by barring any donations from lawyers with any type of business before his office. He also said he would cap donations from their law partners and apply blind fundraising.