De Blasio on trial
Afelon witness giving testimony in the bribery trial of a union boss to whom he personally delivered $60,000 in a Ferragamo bag admittedly makes for a less than impeccable source. Still: The scathing sworn remarks from one of Mayor de Blasio’s biggest donors reveal just how explicitly a fund-raiser proffered access to city government in exchange for cash — and highlight the mayor’s profound insincerity in dismissing his nearly $200,000 dance with donor Jona Rechnitz as some kind of case study in good government.
“He would call when they needed money,” testified Rechnitz, speaking of Ross Offinger, who came calling circa 2014 seeking funds for de Blasio’s Campaign for One New York and other of the mayor’s political ventures. “I would call whenever I had an issue.”
Rechnitz told the jury, which is weighing charges against former corrections union chief Norman Seabrook, that he and a fellow access-seeker made their game excruciatingly clear up front: “We expect a lot of access and influence,” to which Offinger, he says, replied: “OK. How much do you think you guys can get together?” Mr. Quid, meet Dr. Quo. Rechnitz rudely reminds voters on the eve of de Blasio’s reelection vote of just how close the mayor and his minions were to facing charges from federal prosecutors, who investigated such transactions only to conclude that connecting the dots between dollars, given government actions and each participant’s responsibility, didn’t quite gel into a picture of criminal proof.
But what may not have added up to a guilty verdict in a court of law is morally damning nonetheless. Rechnitz was sure he had a personal line to the mayor’s world and to the favors he sought: “We were getting the response that we expected and the results we were expecting,” he testified.
De Blasio last month posted online a self-regarding essay claiming his hands are squeaky clean. “Merit-based bureaucratic decision-making is a little boring for the nightly news,” he sniffed.
Agreed. The dirty truth makes much better headlines.