With everyone paying attention to all of the meetings that President Trump is taking it feels as if there isn’t enough time in the day to pay attention to some of the other people who have interesting items on their agenda. Out in the Big Apple, Mayor Bill de Blasio makes plenty of news for his outlandish policy proposals and inflammatory statements about standing up to Trump, but in the background he still has multiple corruption investigations to deal with. Now a couple of his many attorneys have requested a conference with U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. As you may recall, Preet is in the midst of a long running investigation into the Mayor’s campaign finance activities over the past couple of years. (NY Daily News)
Lawyers for Mayor de Blasio have asked the Manhattan U.S. Attorney for a sit-down to discuss the feds’ ongoing probe of the mayor’s fundraising tactics, the Daily News has learned.
The lawyers are representing the mayor in U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s year-long investigation into whether City Hall gave favorable treatment to donors to the mayor’s now-defunct non-profit, Campaign for One New York…
WNBC-TV reported the mayor himself has agreed to answer questions without the protection of immunity because he believes he can convince them he was not involved in any quid pro quo with his donors. A rep for the mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The mayor is in the midst of running up a tab of more than $11M in taxpayer funds to pay the legal fees for himself and a number of his aides who are also under investigation. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is checking into similar charges over de Blasio’s work in the last state senate campaign and the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics is investigating whether he broke any campaign finance laws.
Mr. Mayor doesn’t feel bad about spending all that tax money on lawyers, but it does make him sad. He’s quoted as saying that he, “expects no charges will result.”
You know, that quote sounds vaguely familiar. Who else was it who was having meetings with Preet Bharara and said he had “every confidence” that he would continue to fulfill his role with distinction? Oh, that’s right. It was former State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. In that same article, it’s none other than Bill de Blasio who is quoted as saying, “I’ve always known Shelly Silver to be a man of integrity.”
Sheldon Silver is currently sweating out the last of his doomed appeals before beginning a twelve year sentence in federal prison.
Enjoy your meeting, Bill.
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