Feds Subpoena City Hall and Mayoral Allies in Fundraising Probe
Several of Bill de Blasio’s closest aides and political allies have been hit with subpoenas as part of the unfolding investigation by federal and state prosecutors into the mayor’s fundraising activities. De Blasio himself “has not been personally served,” Maya Wiley, counsel to the mayor, told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday night.
Investigators are seeking documents related to fundraising for the Campaign for One New York, a nonprofit set up and run by alumni of de Blasio’s election campaign to advocate for his agenda. (Campaign for One New York was disbanded earlier this year after watchdog group Common Cause New York called for its investigation.) From the Journal:
The allies who received subpoenas include Emma Wolfe, the mayor’s director of intergovernmental affairs and his chief political aide; Ross Offinger, his top fundraiser; and BerlinRosen, a consulting firm that works on the mayor’s political campaigns and was co-founded by Jonathan Rosen, a top adviser to Mr. de Blasio.
Other political consultants and firms close to the mayor have also gotten subpoenas, the people said.
“We are not commenting on the details of the investigations,” mayoral press secretary Karen Hinton told the New York Daily News. “All involved followed the letter of the law and are cooperating fully with the investigations.”
“We’re proud of the work we do for our clients,” BerlinRosen said in a statement. “We have acted appropriately and in accordance with the law at all times.”
According to the Journal, investigators are also looking for documents related to the mayor’s unsuccessful attempt to reclaim the state Senate for the Democratic Party in 2014. Last week, the Daily News obtained a memo from the state Board of Elections’ Chief Enforcement Officer, Risa Sugarman, to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, alleging that the mayor had committed “willful and flagrant” violations of campaign finance law.
The state Board of Elections is effectively controlled by Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose feud with the mayor is well documented. In fact, de Blasio’s elections attorney, Laurence Laufer, has accused Sugarman’s letter (and its leak) of being “politically motivated.” Sugarman spent years working for Cuomo when he was New York State Attorney General, and Cuomo appointed her to her current position.
Investigators have also subpoenaed NYCLASS, an animal-rights group leading the effort to ban the hourse-carriage industry in New York, which during the 2013 mayoral election gave $225,000 to another group, “New York Is Not For Sale,” whose sole purpose was to oppose the candidacy of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s heir apparent, then-Speaker Christine Quinn. Two members of NYCLASS’s board of directors, Steve Nislick and Wendy Neu, also sat on New York Is Not For Sale’s steering committee. They also gave more than $100,000 to Campaign for One New York.
De Blasio promised to ban the use of carriage horses “on day one” of his administration. He has not been able to do deliver on that promise.