​You may not have heard of Cyrus Vance if you don't live in Manhattan — or even if you do — but he's having a very bad week, PR wise. Vance is the district attorney for Manhattan, and he's running unopposed for a third term in November, which sounds like an ideal situation for an elected official. But in the past week, Vance has gotten caught up in two of the biggest scandals in the news cycle, and evidence has emerged that Vance repeatedly accepted donations from attorneys who negotiated lenient deals for their clients.

In the past, Vance has been accused of essentially getting kickbacks from a firm his office awarded a contract to, but the evidence of Vance giving favorable treatment to people who made donations to his campaign has piled up in recent days. And it just so happens that two of those donors are attorneys for President Trump and Harvey Weinstein. Here's what's going on.

Vance Declined To Charge The Trump Kids With Fraud After Trump's Attorney Made A Donation

Last Monday, ProPublica (in coordination with the New Yorker and the public radio station WNYC) revealed that Vance dropped an investigation into Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. after Donald Trump Sr.'s personal lawyer made a $25,000 donation to his reelection campaign. The DA's Major Economic Crimes Bureau had collected strong evidence that Trump children had misled prospective buyers about how well condo units were selling in one of their properties, in order to make the condos appear more exclusive and valuable than they really were. But Vance declined to press charges after Kasowitz met with him.

On May 16, 2012, Kasowitz visited Vance's office at One Hogan Place, in downtown Manhattan — a faded edifice made famous by the television show "Law & Order." Dan Alonso, the Chief Assistant District Attorney, and Adam Kaufmann, the chief of the investigative division, were also at the meeting, but no one from the Major Economic Crimes Bureau attended. Kasowitz did not introduce any new arguments or facts during his session. He simply repeated the arguments that the other defense lawyers had been making for months. Ultimately, Vance overruled his own prosecutors. Three months after the meeting, he told them to drop the case.

[ProPublica]

Vance returned the $25,000 donation after his meeting with Kasowitz, but Kasowitz later "made an even larger donation to Vance's campaign, and helped raise more from others — eventually, a total of more than fifty thousand dollars." Once ProPublica began reporting on Kasowitz's donation to Vance, Vance promised to return that money — more than four years after it was given to him — but the situation certainly creates the appearance of a conflict of interest and perhaps even a quid-pro-quo arrangement between Vance and Trump's lawyer.

Vance Also Declined To Charge Harvey Weinstein With Groping, Even Though Weinstein Admitted To It On Tape

On to Harvey Weinstein: Just a day after ProPublica revealed Vance's decision to drop the investigation into the Trump children, the International Business Times reported that Weinstein's lawyer made a campaign donation to Vance after Vance decided not to prosecute Weinstein for groping a model in 2015.

Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's lawyer delivered $10,000 to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. in 2015, in the months after Vance's office decided not to prosecute Weinstein over sexual assault allegations, according to an International Business Times review of campaign finance documents. That contribution from attorney David Boies — who previously headlined a fundraiser for Vance — was a fraction of the more than $182,000 that Boies, his son and his law partners have delivered to the Democrat during his political career.

[International Business Times]

Today, The New Yorker published additional details of the 2015 assault, and just how strong the NYPD's case against Weinstein was. After Weinstein allegedly "lunged at her, groping her breasts and attempting to put a hand up her skirt while she protested," Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez reported her assault to the NYPD and agreed to wear a wire to extract a confession from Weinstein.

A team of undercover officers helped guide her through the interaction. On the recording, which I have heard in full, Weinstein lists actresses whose careers he has helped and offers Gutierrez the services of a dialect coach. Then he presses her to join him in his hotel room while he showers… In an increasingly tense exchange, he presses her to enter. Gutierrez says, "I don't want to," "I want to leave," and "I want to go downstairs." She asks him directly why he groped her breasts the day before. "Oh, please, I'm sorry, just come on in," Weinstein says. "I'm used to that. Come on. Please." … "We had the evidence," the police source involved in the operation told me. "It's a case that made me angrier than I thought possible, and I have been on the force a long time."

[The New Yorker]

You can listen to the stomach-turning exchange here.

Vance's Office Maintains That There Wasn't Sufficient Evidence To Charge Weinstein

Despite the strength of the NYPD's case against Weinstein, Vance declined to press charges, releasing a statement at the time that declared, "After analyzing the available evidence, including multiple interviews with both parties, a criminal charge is not supported."

Today, the assistant district attorney released a new statement blaming the NYPD for not "establish[ing] criminal intent" on the conversation they recorded between Gutierrez and Weinstein.

Manhattan DA's office on Weinstein: "If we could have prosecuted Harvey Weinstein for the conduct that occurred in 2015, we would have." pic.twitter.com/Y5HslZORN4 — Dan Linden (@DanLinden) October 10, 2017

The Daily Beast reports that prosecutors didn't press charges against Weinstein in part because they were wary of getting involved in another high-profile sexual assault case after failing to secure rape charges against French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 2011. But the fact that Weinstein's lawyer and his associates made such large donations to Vance after Vance decided not to press charges against Weinstein creates an appearance of impropriety.

Vance Also Appeared To Give Favorable Treatment To Sex Offenders Represented By A Firm That Gave Him Money

A few days after the International Business Times reported on Weinstein's lawyer's donation to Vance, it reported that a different law firm that represented clients accused of sexual assault gave more than $42,000 to Vance's campaign. Vance negotiated light sentences with multiple clients of the firm, Clayman & Rosenberg LLP. In one particularly disturbing case, Clayman & Rosenberg lawyer Isabelle Kirshner and Vance agreed on a generous plea deal for a gynecologist accused of abusing 20 women. Two months later, Kirshner and her bosses donated $3,000 to Vance's campaign.

For instance, in a 2016 case, Kirshner represented Dr. Robert Hadden, a gynecologist charged with the sexual assault of six pregnant patients. Kirshner secured a plea deal with Vance's office for her client, who admitted in court to engaging "in an act of oral sexual conduct against a patient for no valid medical purpose." Hadden was accused of abuse by 20 women, according to the New York Daily News, but most of the alleged incidents occurred outside of the statute of limitations for medical malpractice charges. Hadden pleaded guilty in a deal that allowed him to avoid jail time and community service. He was only required to register as a level 1 sex offender, the lowest possible registration, and surrender his medical license.

[International Business Times]

Needless to say, accepting thousands of dollars from lawyers shortly after you let their client off easy is not a great look!

Now People Are Hoping That Vance Will Resign, Or That Someone Will Mount A Write-In Campaign Against Him

Today the Washington Post's Philip Bump argued that some Democrat living in Manhattan should run against Vance in light of the new evidence of corruption.

What if a well-known New York Democrat suddenly mounted a write-in campaign for the seat? Neither Preet Bharara nor — just imagine! — Hillary Clinton appear to be eligible for the office because neither is registered as a voter in the borough. (The deadline to register to vote in the city has passed, and calls to the city to clarify the residency qualifications were not returned.) But Spitzer lives on the Upper East Side — as do a number of other high-profile, wealthy New York attorneys.

[The Washington Post]

And lots of other high-profile figures in media and entertainment are also pushing for Vance's ouster, one way or another.

When you ask why women don't press charges perhaps it's because people like Cy Vance Jr. decline to prosecute despite decades of abuse. https://t.co/lWIBzRgaMe — Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) October 10, 2017

How does Cy Vance remain in office? — Lydia Polgreen (@lpolgreen) October 10, 2017

So, what lawyer lives in Manhattan and is famous enough to run a one-month write-in campaign against Cy Vance? — Josh Barro (@jbarro) October 10, 2017