In one of the strangest defenses ever offered, a beleaguered Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to release a list of big-dollar donors who didn’t get what they wanted from him. “We will be showing you more and more in the coming weeks, a stunning number of donors and supporters not only did not get things they hoped they would get, they got rejection of things they hoped they would get,” he told reporters. He said it would prove his fundraising was “clean and appropriate.”
That was more than a week ago and so far, no list has appeared. Perhaps that’s because such a list would be shorter than a list of donors who got what they wanted, which would gut the mayor’s claims. The delay also could mean lawyers advised him that going down that road could backfire.
Politically, it would be embarrassing to disclose what his donors wanted. Legally, it would show that City Hall knowingly sought out people who needed government action, and that could be a major element in a crime.
The test of illegality isn’t limited to whether de Blasio actually sold his office. He could conceivably face charges for soliciting donations from people who wanted favors, even if he never delivered them.
The potential charge would be extortion, a definition of which is the “illegal use of one’s official position or powers to obtain property, funds or patronage.” Relevant examples include the guilty verdicts against former legislative leaders Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver.
Both were convicted of federal extortion charges, among other counts, for using their offices to shake down businesses. In some instances, the businesses got government favors, but not in all.
Trial witnesses, including developers with nonprosecution agreements, sounded as if they were dealing with the mob. They said they didn’t want to alienate Silver or Skelos, which could hurt their businesses, so they did what the lawmakers wanted.
Some gave jobs to Skelos’ son, others hired a real estate firm as a favor to Silver, without knowing that Silver was secretly splitting the fees they paid.
The same concept might apply to de Blasio because of the way he and his confederates went about selecting prospective donors. Their slush fund, the Campaign for One New York, raised $4.36 million, the vast bulk from donors who had business before the city.
They did this despite a ruling by the Conflicts of Interest Board that said neither de Blasio nor any city employee could raise money for the fund from anyone with “matters pending or about to be pending” before City Hall. The mayor agreed to those terms, then apparently routinely violated them.
It is obvious that numerous donors had pending business, and two have said publicly that the mayor personally asked them for large contributions.
As for the dozens of other donors in a similar situation, the mayor’s lawyers put forward two flimsy distinctions: one, that some donors were solicited by private consultants working for the fund, so the restriction on city employees did not apply to them. Two, the lawyers also reportedly narrowly defined the meaning of “pending,” although the mayor won’t release their legal advice.
Regardless, the pattern suggests people and firms hit up for large contributions were selected precisely because they were waiting for government action on specific requests. Real estate developers needed tax abatements or permits, the teachers union needed a contract, as did prospective vendors, including the salesman of rat-resistant trash bags who donated $100,000 before he got a meeting with the mayor and a contract.
Extortion, of course, carries the implication of a threat. And from what I hear, some of the donors have told or are preparing to tell prosecutors that they felt they had no choice but to make large donations. They feared that if they didn’t go along, they would be penalized.
I believe we’ll know soon what really happened, but one thing is already clear. As was also true in the Silver and Skelos cases, no business apparently complained to prosecutors until they were subpoenaed. Then, to save their own skins, they were eager to sing.
One antidote to the scourge of corruption is a bolder and more honest business community. That requires courageous leaders who voluntarily blow the whistle instead of simply playing along with a rigged game until they get caught in a scandal.
Mudder lode vs. Clintons
To be successful, a disrupter must go where nobody else will. And be lucky, too.
Donald Trump is scoring on both fronts. His Instagram ad against Hillary Clinton featuring old allegations about Bill Clinton forcing himself on women drew objections, but it can be justified on the grounds that tens of millions of voters are too young to know the skeezy details. The ad is cringe-worthy, but it’s fair game.
The luck part for Trump is the clamor for prosecution of Bill Cosby for old alleged sex crimes, a clamor that led a Pennsylvania judge to rule that Cosby must stand trial for an alleged 2004 assault. The confluence led an MSNBC anchor to say “Bill Clinton” must stand trial when he meant “Bill Cosby.”
Or, as The Post front page put it over pictures of both men, “Dirty Bills.”
Even before the dovetailing, the Clinton scandals of yesteryear were being seen in a new light. A culture that long tolerated his aggressive philandering is being replaced by a new sensitivity toward the victims, especially on college campuses.
That shift caught Cosby off guard and could spell trouble for the Clintons. Consider that the Trump ad features the voices of two women, Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey, who say Bill Clinton assaulted them, and that Hillary tried to destroy them to protect him.
Liberals who protected Bill Clinton are furious at Trump, but delighted that Cosby is facing the music. They want it both ways, but it’s no longer their choice alone.
Adding in$ult to injury in TSA mess
With maddeningly long lines and no answers about congested airports, a top official of the Transportation Security Administration got the boot.
But will taxpayers get back his $90,000 bonus?
Security chief Kelly Hoggan presided over a looming disaster, with investigators who conducted tests able to get fake guns and explosives through checkpoints 95 percent of the time. But that didn’t hurt him. Hoggan got fired because, with thousands of passengers sleeping on airport cots, somebody had to take the fall.
Yet the TSA is like the IRS and the Veterans Administration and so much else of Washington.
Bureaucrats come, get a bonus, screw up, get fired and the cycle begins again.
Let’s at least eliminate the bonuses. That way, the public won’t have salt rubbed in its wounds.
O’s gender bender
Headline: Immigration Detention Center to Include Area For Transgender Detainees.
No, the whole world hasn’t gone nuts. But the Obama administration certainly has.