12HIS SLEAZY PASS
Dirty donor gave early advice, & Blaz took it
Crooked Mayor de Blasio donor Jona Rechnitz urged Hizzoner to attend NYPD crime stat meetings, new emails show — then tried to take credit for the mayor's appearance.
The correspondence between Rechnitz and de Blasio, filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday, raises further questions about City Hall's compliance with transparency laws.
In a message sent eight days into de Blasio's first term, Rechnitz advises the mayor to attend an NYPD Compstat meeting. Rechnitz, who has pleaded guilty to showering high-ranking cops with gifts and making political donations in exchange for access to de Blasio, noted that then-Commissioner Bill Bratton would also be present.
“Go to compstat tomorrow. No mayor ever did it before. Sends a message. Bratton is going. Kelly never went before,” Rechnitz wrote, likely referring to former Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
A response was redacted by federal prosecutors for reasons that aren't clear.
Roughly a month and a half later, de Blasio apparently attended one of the meetings.
“Heard you took my suggestion :-)” Rechnitz wrote de Blasio.
A response was again redacted.
Rechnitz has pleaded guilty to one count of honest services fraud and is testifying against his former friend and fellow police buff, Jeremy Reichberg, and ex-Deputy Inspector James Grant.
The emails were not included in 286 pages of de Blasio's communications with Rechnitz turned over in response to a Freedom of Information Law request.
Instead, they were released by Grant's attorney, John Meringolo. He argued that the emails showed why he needed to question de Blasio on the stand about his relationship with Rechnitz.
The Compstat conversations came in addition to another email, revealed last week, in which Rechnitz pleaded with de Blasio to reconsider accepting the resignation of former Chief of Department Philip Banks.
“It is unknown the extent to which the Mayor's email communications with Mr. Rechnitz has been preserved or deleted,” Meringolo wrote.
On Tuesday, de Blasio pleaded ignorance on whether more emails between him and Rechnitz might emerge.
“I don't have a clue,” he said. “I stopped contact with this guy the second I heard of his really inappropriate actions, and that was a long time ago.”
The most obvious explanation for why City Hall did not turn over the emails in question is that de Blasio, or someone else, deleted them before reporters filed a Freedom of Information Law request. Asked for his usual practice with emails, de Blasio drew a distinction between those sent to his personal account — which is still subject to FOIL if the email is about city business — and his work one.
“The vast majority of what I do is on government email and it's all preserved,” de Blasio said.
City Hall has argued de Blasio and other mayoral staffers are not required to preserve all of their emails and can delete many of them at any time. But Hizzoner said he saves his.
“The government side is all preserved,” he said.
As for his personal emails — including accounts used by Rechnitz — de Blasio said he switches over if talk veers into city business.
“If someone reaches me, someone sends an email to say can we talk, I'll call them up whatever, fine,” de Blasio said. “But if someone starts into any content what I do is switch it over to government email.”