Mayor De Blasio is denying any wrongdoing after some of his closest aides were hit with subpoenas. It’s all part of an ivestigation into the mayor’s fundraising. Melissa Russo reports.
Aides to Mayor Bill de Blasio have been subpoenaed by state and federal prosecutors amid investigations into his campaign fundraising operation, his administration said.
City Hall received subpoenas from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and from the Manhattan district attorney's office, mayoral counsel Maya Wiley said Wednesday.
A statement issued by Wiley said de Blasio had not been "personally served," but it didn't reveal the recipients of the subpoenas. But sources familiar with the case say that those who received subpoenas included the mayor's director of intergovernmental affairs, Emma Wolfe.
The subpoenas are seeking documents and information related to the mayor's failed effort to help Democrats win the statehouse in 2014.
On Thursday, de Blasio said that he wasn't concerned with the investigation.
"I feel fine because everything we've done is legal and appropriate," he said.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment, as did Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
The subpoenas come as a series of loosely related public corruption investigations coordinated by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara have trained a spotlight on de Blasio's administration. Some parts of the multifaceted probe concern fundraising.
De Blasio's team has been accused of circumventing the $10,000 dollar donation limit to individual candidates by arranging for much larger donations to be funneled through some obscure upstate Democratic committees, where the limit is more than $100,000.
The state official who referred the accusation to the Manhattan District Attorney is Risa Sugarman, named by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to investigate election-related misconduct. Some election officials say it's curious that Sugarman chose to pursue de Blasio's fundraising as a criminal case while ignoring more than 1,000 other cases in which committees fail to follow the rules.
"The concern is that there's no consistent policy or stated standard on what cases get prosecuted or what cases are ignored," said Douglas Kellner of the New York State Board of Elections.
De Blasio has called the Board of Elections report outrageous.
Prosecutors also are looking into the fundraising activities of businessmen with ties to the mayor. Other investigations concern some high-ranking NYPD officials and the union representing city jail guards.
