Kept $70G from firm despite probe of its client de Blasio

Trumps and dropped the case. In October 2013, Kasowitz made a second contribution of nearly $32,000.

Vance initially said he’d kept that contribution because the case was closed and there was no longer a conflict, but returned it once it became the subject of a joint investigation by WNYC, ProPublica and The New Yorker.

In de Blasio’s case, Berke met personally with Vance and his public corruption squad on Dec. 20, then returned again with de Blasio to meet with the squad on Dec. 23.

Three months later on March 16, Vance announced he had closed the case without bringing charges against de Blasio in what by then was a 14-month campaign finance probe.

Vance did lecture de Blasio a bit, releasing a letter in which he stated that the facts he’d uncovered “appear contrary to the intent and spirit of the law.” That same day, Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon Kim announced he’d also closed an investigation into potential payto-play transactions involving the mayor without bringing charges, but found de Blasio had intervened on behalf of big donors seeking favors from his team.

A month after that bit of good news for Kramer Levin’s famous client, de Blasio, partner Coffey made one more modest donation to Vance, this time for $250. Coffey did not return calls seeking comment about his and his firm’s donations.

A spokesman for Vance’s campaign, Steve Sigmund, said Friday that the Kramer Levin checks to Vance “were not made by lawyers involved in an active investigation and were made almost a year prior to the investigation you reference.”

“Contributions have never and will never impact the DA’s work or that of the DA’s office,” Sigmund said.