The Rise and Fall of Eric Schneiderman

Schneiderman was able to claw back billions of dollars from banks and wrongdoers, including a $13 billion settlement with JP Morgan Chase, even as some Obama administration officials feared that the New York attorney general was acting too aggressively.

But largely Schneiderman failed to live up to the examples of his predecessors. He almost immediately began a feud with Governor Andrew Cuomo, who before he had Bill de Blasio to fight with saw Schneiderman as his biggest threat. Soon after being sworn in as governor, Cuomo unveiled a new unit in the executive branch, the Department of Financial Services, and installed a top aide, Benjamin Lawsky, in the job and tasked him with investigating financial fraud. It was as if Cuomo didn't want to leave his old job behind, and Schneiderman vented to a friend, "I have got to get this guy off my ass."

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As Cynthia Nixon and Andrew Cuomo squabbled on the campaign trail, Schneiderman was in the catbird seat, the overwhelming favorite to replace Cuomo eventually in the governor's mansion. But now none of it will be, and Schneiderman will join the long list of disgraced New York politicians who become a national punch line --Spitzer, Anthony Weiner, Michael Grimm, David Paterson.