Words can hurt

Blaz should pay for whistleblower rip: lawyer

Mayor de Blasio should be held accountable for his meanspirited sniping of a justfired deputy commissioner, an attorney for the city official who blew the whistle on potential corruption within City Hall told the Daily News.

Former Deputy Commissioner Ricardo Morales has a long-running suit against the city over his termination in 2017 amid a federal probe into de Blasio’s fund-raising practices. Morales claims he was ousted for complaining that City Hall inappropriately intervened on behalf of a major de Blasio donor who owed nearly $750,000 in back rent for a Queens restaurant.

New evidence released this week in Morales’ Manhattan Federal Court case shows de Blasio sarcastically criticizing a Daily News scoop on the scandal.

“Is this the article Greg has been working on all his life?” de Blasio wrote about former News reporter Greg B. Smith.

“The entire year. Literally. All of this is rehash,” de Blasio’s then-spokesman Eric Phillips replied. The flack suggested de Blasio respond to questions about Morales with a general statement.

“Not familiar with details of his suit, but know we acted appropriately. Answered questions on this a thousand times – nothing more to add to any of it – very comfortable with how we handled ourselves,” Phillips wrote.

De Blasio’s remarks at a press conference were not so neutral.

“I think there was a performance issue and there was a desire to change the way the agency was structured,” de Blasio said.

Morales cooperated with the feds. He was fired the same day de Blasio was questioned by federal prosecutors about special treatment of campaign donors.

“He’s using the power of the mayor’s office to destroy Ricardo Morales – went out of his way! Does anyone really think that is for any reasons other than Morales testifying against him?” Morales’ attorney Robert Kraus said.

A judge will rule on Kraus’s argument that de Blasio should be held personally liable for Morales’ alleged public humiliation.

The Daily News previously reported that the federal probe of de Blasio centered on him taking advantage of bigshots with business before the city by convincing them to donate money for one-on-one convos with the mayor. De Blasio accepted the meetings knowing the donors were not going to get what they wanted, sources familiar with the investigation said. Manhattan federal prosecutors closed the probe without bringing charges.

City Hall did not respond to an inquiry and has denied wrongdoing.

Ricardo Morales (l.) was a deputy commissioner in Department of Citywide Administrative Services when he was fired by Mayor de Blasio (above) in 2017. Morales says he was axed because he complained that City Hall was inappropriately intervening in favor of a major donor who owed back rent for a Queens restaurant.