When asked last month if he’s marched in LGBTQ Pride parades, New York 10th Congressional District contender Dan Goldman responded that his work as a federal prosecutor prevented him from doing so — but a review of Justice Department guidelines shows that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Goldman worked for 10 years in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office and eventually went on to lead the first impeachment probe into former President Donald Trump.
He’s worked as an MSNBC commentator as well and is now running for Congress in the 10th District, which covers parts of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan.
As part of his campaign, Goldman responded to a questionnaire from the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, which asked him if he’s “marched in Pride?” and “which marches and for approximately how many years?”
Goldman answered that “working in the U.S. attorney’s office, we were not allowed to be involved in political activities and issue advocacy.”
“This year I marched in the Brooklyn Pride Parade and led a group of supporters in Manhattan’s Pride march,” he continued. “I plan to march in both every year.”
But Goldman’s explanation doesn’t appear to be consistent with restrictions laid out by the Justice Department on its website. According to the guidelines, restricted Justice Department employees fall into two categories — less restricted and further restricted.
Employees who fall under the designation “less restricted” are permitted to “attend and be active at political rallies and meetings” and “further restricted” employees are also allowed to “attend political rallies and meetings,” according to the Justice Department’s website.
The guidelines do not appear to consider “issue advocacy,” one of the terms Goldman used in his response.
His statement also appears to be contradicted by the fact that the Department of Justice has boasted an LGBTQ organization since 1994 called DOJ Pride.
“In the U.S. attorney’s office, Dan used best practices to avoid any public involvement in politics to ensure there could be no appearance of a conflict of interest,” Goldman’s spokesman Simone Kanter said. “The voters of NY-10 can be sure that Dan will bring that same degree of ethical integrity to Congress as their representative. Dan greatly enjoyed walking in both the Brooklyn and Manhattan Pride parades this year and in Congress will fight tirelessly as an advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Not everyone is buying his explanation, though.
Allen Roskoff, president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, was very matter-of-fact when asked about Goldman’s response as to why he didn’t march in Pride while working for the Justice Department: “Where was he in college? Where was he before joining the U.S. attorney’s office? The marches were happening before 10 years ago.”
Rep. Mondaire Jones, one of Goldman’s Democratic primary opponents who also worked at the Justice Department during President Barack Obama’s tenure and is gay, accused the former prosecutor of using the LGBTQ community as a “political football.”
“Mr. Goldman wasn’t barred from showing solidarity with LGBTQ+ New Yorkers — he just chose not to, and is now misrepresenting his record to further exploit the LGBTQ+ community,” Jones, whose current district includes Rockland County and part of Westchester County, said in a written statement to the Daily News. “As one of only nine openly LGBTQ+ members of the House, and the first openly gay, Black person ever elected to Congress, this is personal to me.”
Yetta Kurland, a civil rights attorney, also criticized Goldman’s answer, calling it “concerning.”
“Employees of the government have the right to express their political ideas,” she noted, but then added: “This is not a political issue.”
“I think the word he’s really trying to avoid is controversial,” she said. “That should not be a controversial issue to someone running for Congress in New York in 2022.”
Goldman is facing several opponents in his run for Congress. They include Jones, former Rep. Liz Holtzman, City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera (D-Manhattan) and Assemblywomen Jo Anne Simon (D-Brooklyn) and Yuh-Line Niou (D-Manhattah), among several others.
Rivera’s camp also seized on Goldman’s response to the questionnaire.
“Dan Goldman is simply not ready to represent and deliver a pro-choice, pro-LGBTQ agenda on the national level,” Rivera’s spokeswoman Alyssa Cass said.
Cass was also referring to another slipup Goldman made on abortion rights. Goldman recently said he wouldn’t object to a state law that bars abortions after a fetus is considered viable — as long as there’s no risk to the mother and the pregnancy wasn’t a result of rape or incest — but he later walked back the remark, saying at the time that he “misspoke.”
