Eric Schneiderman’s Resignation and the Effect on Pending Legal Actions with The Attorney General

Announcer: The following segment is sponsored by Martin, Harding & Mazzotti.

Interviewer: Developing now, backlash starting to build today after a stunning turn of events. The sudden resignation of the state’s top law enforcement official, now former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Schneiderman has denied allegations of sexual and domestic violence against several women, asserting that he merely engaged in consensual role-playing at times and never crossed any lines. Well, here to help examine this issue is supervising attorney Dan Dagostino from the law firm of Martin, Harding & Mazzotti. Dan, welcome.

Dan: Thank you.

Interviewer: Thank you for being here. All right. So let’s just kind of, like, jump right into all of this. Has the Attorney General been charged with any crimes or have any sort of civil suit filed against him?

Dan: As of now, there’s been nothing that he’s been charged with. The New York State Police actually came on record to say there’s been no criminal investigative reports filed, and as of now, there’s been no civil lawsuits as well.

Interviewer: So if no criminal charges are pending, why did he resign?

Dan: In the climate we live in today with the political and social climate I guess I would say is, you know, we’ve seen so many Hollywood moguls, other senators do similar things like this. And I think in the court of public opinion, the best choice for him is to resign. We have four women that have corroborated what has happened to them. We’ve got Governor Cuomo and I think Senator Gillibrand who has asked for his resignation. And I don’t see how he can do his job. He has to resign.

Interviewer: All right. So what effect does Schneiderman’s resignation have on the pending legal actions in the Attorney General’s office?

Dan: That’s a good question. Currently, it would have no effect. There’s hundreds of Assistant Attorney Generals, Deputy Attorney Generals. They’ll pick up the slack. They’ll move forward with the cases.

Interviewer: All right. So what’s the next step? What can we expect going forward?

Dan: It’ll be interesting. To replace the Attorney General, there has to be a unified…it’s a unified ballot between the New York State Senate and the Assembly. They’ll all vote. Essentially, the Assembly has the numbers, so they could control who would be the next Attorney General until the election which is upcoming this year.

Interviewer: All right. Well, obviously still very much a developing story that we’ll continue to keep an eye on. Dan, thank you so much for being here.

Dan: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you.