Two lawyers who squared off during Eliot Spitzer‘s prostitution scandal are set to team up for the transition at the Brooklyn’s district attorney’s office, the Daily News has learned.
Democratic primary winner Kenneth Thompson has tapped former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, who investigated but didn’t charge the hooker-loving governor in 2008, and Michele Hirschman, who represented Spitzer, a source said.
Other members of the panel are Anne Vladeck, a leading sex discrimination layer, former New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey and Patricia Gatling, chair of the city’s Human Rights Commission, who was a deputy to current DA Charles Hynes until 2002.
“It’s smart of Thompson not to load up his transition team with ex-Hynes employees,” said a source close to Hynes, who’s finishing his 24th year in office but was defeated in the primary two weeks ago. Doing otherwise would hamper taking “a fresh look at the office,” the source added.
Absent from the transition panel are Ama Dwinoh — former Crimes Against Children Bureau Chief who was fired by Hynes in 2010 for allegations of screaming at interns and was rumored to be heading the transition — and FORMER Gang Bureau Chief Deanna Rodriguez, who was axed this year after allegations THAT she made racist remarks.
Hynes is still on the Republican and Conservative tickets for the November general election, and those parties have urged him to continue campaigning. The 78-year-old DA has made no public comment since primary night, when he promised a smooth transition.
