NEW YORK — One of the two New York prosecutors who quit over the slow pace of a criminal probe into former President Donald Trump said the pair had never committed to staying with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office through any trial, which would likely take years.
Mark Pomerantz, 70, and Carey Dunne, 63, resigned last month when new District Attorney Alvin Bragg stopped supporting their aggressive push to bring criminal charges and expressed skepticism about their strategy. Both men had been recruited by Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance, whose term expired in December.
“My intent was to stay in the office and work on the prosecution of Donald Trump,” Pomerantz said in a phone interview Monday. “At the same time, Carey and I made it clear that since the case would take a number of years, neither of us would stay for the duration of the prosecution.”
Dunne declined to comment.
Whether Dunne and Pomerantz would stick around may have been an important consideration for Bragg. He inherited a high-profile criminal probe of Trump that hadn’t led to an indictment after three years under Vance and would likely take years longer to complete if it went to trial. Bragg’s office declined to comment.
Both men wrote resignation letters, but Bragg’s office turned down a freedom-of-information request to disclose them publicly because the letters contained discussion of an ongoing criminal investigation and referenced grand jury matters. However, a copy of Pomerantz’s letter appeared in the New York Times last week, which first reported on the men’s February departures.
In the letter, Pomerantz criticized Bragg’s decision not to file charges in the near term.
“I fear that your decision means that Mr. Trump will not be held fully accountable for his crimes,” Pomerantz wrote. “I have worked too hard as a lawyer, and for too long, now to become a passive participant in what I believe to be a grave failure of justice. I therefore resign from my position as a Special Assistant District Attorney, effective immediately.”
After this article was published, Pomerantz sent the following statement: “I did not tell anyone at DANY that I planned to leave before a prosecution of Donald Trump was concluded, and I had no such plans. I said I could not commit to staying for the entire duration of a case against Donald Trump, which could take years. But I had no plans to leave, and intended to stay indefinitely if a prosecution had been authorized.”
