New memory lap$e for Bill
MAYOR DE BLASIO had another memory lapse Sunday when grilled about bombshell testimony from a big-bucks donor, saying he doesn’t remember whether he personally asked the man for a six-figure check.
Businessman Jona Rechnitz, who has pleaded guilty to corruption, testified Friday that de Blasio personally asked him to donate to an unsuccessful 2014 push to flip the state Senate to Democratic control.
He wrote a check for $102,300 — and claimed that after that, requests he had made to the city that were previously stalled got attended to.
De Blasio said Sunday he didn’t remember whether the conversation ever took place.
“I don’t recall ever talking about that,” he told reporters at an unrelated press conference in the Rockaways.
“I for years was raising money for different funds,” de Blasio said. “I don’t remember when I asked them, what specifically I asked them. Just way too much had happened. Plus, there was the vast majority of my work I do as mayor. It’s very normal that I wouldn’t remember a specific conversation.”
De Blasio again denounced Rechnitz on Sunday as a liar, but has only denied one specific claim made by the disgraced donor — that they spoke about once a week late in his 2013 campaign for mayor.
Asked Sunday to identify other false statements Rechnitz made on the stand, de Blasio did not list any and instead attacked the press for covering the testimony.
“Obviously, he’s a convicted felon because he’s lied about a lot of things. He’s a criminal, guys! I don’t understand what your problem is,” Hizzoner said.
The U.S. attorney’s office probed de Blasio’s fund-raising operation and opted not to bring charges, though prosecutors said the mayor had intervened on behalf of donors.
Rechnitz testified Thursday and Friday as a government witness in the bribery trial of jails union boss Norman Seabrook, and said he raised $193,000 for the mayor and got “lots of access” in return.