Daniel Goldman, the former federal prosecutor who served as counsel to House Democrats in the initial impeachment investigation of previous President Donald Trump, introduced Tuesday he will run for New York attorney standard.

His announcement arrived in a two-moment video in which he forged himself as a general public servant with a deep commitment to civil rights and equivalent justice.

Goldman advised ABC Information he decided to operate for the reason that “democracy is beneath assault” and hoped to use the “broad authority” of the New York Legal professional General’s Workplace to combat back again.

“It begun with Trump and now continues with Trumpism,” Goldman explained. “There is a swath of the region that no for a longer period thinks in totally free and truthful elections.”

Goldman joins what is anticipated to be a crowded and varied discipline now that the latest occupant, Letitia James, has introduced a operate for governor. Fordham Legislation professor Zephyr Teachout and state Sen. Shelley Mayer have declared their candidacies. Condition Sen. Mike Gianaris, Brooklyn District Lawyer Eric Gonzalez and Queens District Legal professional Melinda Katz are also mentioned to be thinking of runs.

If elected, Goldman pledged to use the ability of the business office to uphold voting rights, reproductive legal rights and to battle the outcomes of local weather modify. Although there is not always a legal avenue for the point out lawyer basic in those people pursuits, Goldman advised ABC Information “there is a pulpit and perch of a nationwide relevance” and “broad authority inside of the lawyer general’s office environment in upholding a single standard of law.”

Recent occupants of the office environment, like the incumbent James and her predecessors Andrew Cuomo and Elliot Spitzer, used it as a springboard. Goldman spoke of no these kinds of ambitions.

“I’m carrying out this for the reason that I want to be the people’s lawyer,” he explained. His final decision to run turned business right after Cuomo resigned as governor and James was rumored to be discovering a operate for the business office.

Goldman said he would work to make voters have an understanding of his “lifelong contacting” as a winner of civil rights and legal justice reform

Goldman, 45, is married with 5 small children and life in Manhattan. He was a historical past key at Yale and acquired a regulation degree at Stanford right before two judicial clerkships and a 10-12 months stint at the U.S. Attorney’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York, the place he prosecuted arranged criminal offense and securities fraud. Then there was the 2019 purpose that designed him a common confront on television: direct prosecutor in Trump’s 1st impeachment.

“Impeachment is the maximum profile and most very well-regarded second of my vocation in public company but it demonstrates I’m unafraid, intense and will battle for what I think is appropriate,” Goldman explained.