A day after speaking to reporters for less than a minute about the federal and state investigation into his fundraising activities, Mayor Bill de Blasio went on the radio for an in-depth interview about the probe. NY1 Political Reporter Grace Rauh has more details.
A day after speaking to reporters for less than a minute about the investigation into his fundraising, Mayor Bill de Blasio was on the radio Friday for two lengthy interviews.
One focused almost entirely on a state Board of Elections investigation that found the mayor's team violated state campaign finance laws when working to elect Democrats to the state Senate in 2014.
"This is something of a double standard if some people follow the law exactingly and that's considered a problem and other people follow the law exactingly and it's not a problem," the mayor said.
The state Board of Elections found the mayor's aides directed large contributions to Democratic county political committees, which then funneled the money to specific state Senate candidates. The donations far exceeded the legal limit the candidates would have been allowed to accept directly.
De Blasio suggested the report was political. The investigator who spearheaded it was appointed by Governor Amdrew Cuomo. The report was referred to the Manhattan district attorney.
"I was certainly not involved in any of the day-to-day specifics of the different efforts," de Blasio said. "Everything was done very carefully, meticulously with legal guidance all along the way, and consistent with what so many other people have done.
Just as de Blasio worked to help Democrats reclaim the state Senate, his predecessor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, wrote hefty checks to Senate Republicans. In all, he donated more than $2.2 million to help the party maintain control of the Senate.
Bloomberg's checks, though, went to the central New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee. There is no indication he directed the money at specific candidates, like de Blasio's aides are accused of having done.