In recent weeks, the fury directed at Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance seemed to boil over, with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, the entire female membership of the City Council and sexual assault victims all declaring enough was enough.
Vance chose not to pursue an earlier sexual abuse case against Weinstein in 2015, despite the alleged victim, Ambra Gutierrez, having recorded Weinstein seemingly incriminating himself.
"It wasn't handled in the way that I was hoping for," Gutierrez said.
Then there was lenient treatment of Jeffrey Epstein; and a plea deal that allowed a Columbia University gynecologist to avoid jail time for sexual abuse despite 19 women coming forward, including Evelyn Yang, wife of former presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
“The D.A.’s office is meant to protect us, is meant to serve justice. And there was no justice here,” Yang said.
Vance has pushed back on the idea he’s gone easy on rich and powerful men, and has said his office fights for sex crime victims, a theme he to returned Monday.
"With this verdict, I hope that survivors will see that in this justice system, prosecutors, judges and juries will believe them," Vance said at a press conference after the Weinstein verdict.
Vance hasn’t directly addressed calls for his resignation, and a spokesperson says he hasn’t yet decided whether to run for re-election next year.
A growing field of challengers is already taking aim at his record.
The group includes Civil Rights Attorneys Tahanie Aboushi and Janos Marton, Manhattan Assemblyman Dan Quart, and law professor and former Federal Prosecutor Alvin Bragg.
Meanwhile, Governor Cuomo back in 2018 called for the state attorney general to investigate Vance’s handling of the earlier Weinstein accusations. That investigation had been on hold until the current Weinstein case concluded.