New York Daily News

Blaz: testify? i don’t know, i’m no lawyer

- Andrew Keshner and Jillian Jorgensen

MAYOR DE BLASIO dodged a question Thursday about whether he’ll have to testify in a Long Island corruption trial that stars one of Hizzoner’s big donors.

“I’m not a lawyer,” the mayor said at a press conference in Brooklyn on Vision Zero — 45 miles from where his donor, Harendra Singh, began detailing pay-to-play dealings in a Central Islip federal courtroom.

“What we did, what my team did, what I did was legal and appropriat­e,” the mayor said. “We’ve discussed it exhaustive­ly. There’s really nothing else to say.”

On Thursday, Singh debuted as the star prosecutio­n witness in the trial of former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano. Singh has said he bribed Mangano to win contracts from the county.

Mangano’s lawyers have argued that he’s been unfairly targeted, asserting that Singh also bribed de Blasio but the mayor wasn’t charged. They’ve said they may call de Blasio as a witness.

Singh has pleaded guilty to bribery and stated during his plea that he raised funds for de Blasio to gain favorable treatment from City Hall on a lease for Water’s Edge, which sat on city-owned land.

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