Ex-cop big to take 5th in fed trial

As recently as 2014, Philip Banks was the city's top uniformed officer and in the running for commissioner.

The former Chief of Department's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, Thursday wrote he'll plead the Fifth if called to testify in an NYPD corruption trial starting next week.

The revelation came the same day the city said it will oppose a subpoena demanding Mayor de Blasio testify in the trial of Deputy Inspector James Grant and businessman Jeremy Reichberg.

Banks' decision to take the fifth was revealed in a letter included in filings in Manhattan Federal Court by Grant's lawyer John Meringolo.

Banks was eyed in connection with a corruption probe that rocked the upper ranks of the NYPD, and a probe of de Blasio's fund-raising.

Meringolo is asking a judge to order Banks to take the stand, and has said he will not ask Banks about “certain potential tax liabilities.”

Banks “would on the advice of counsel refuse to testify and invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,” Brafman wrote.

In 2014 the feds suspected Banks and de Blasio donor Jona Rechnitz were funding a liquor-wholesaling scheme with Harlem restaurateur Hamlet Peralta, according to court papers, who is serving five years for running a $12 million Ponzi scheme. Rechnitz has said he and Reichberg bribed top cops, and Banks (photo) was among those cultivated.

Meanwhile, city attorneys are seeking to squash a subpoena served on de Blasio.

The mayor “does not possess any knowledge relevant to Defendant Grant's actions or asserted defenses,” lawyer Thomas Roberts wrote.