Another day, another batch of evidence of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s corruption. The question now is: How does he get away with it?
Monday, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics announced two settlements tied to its probe of Hizzoner’s defunct slush fund, the Campaign for One New York.
In one agreement, lobbyist James Capalino will cough up $40,000 to settle allegations he illegally “donated” $10,000 to CONY (and rounded up another $90,000 from clients) at de Blasio’s request. By law, lobbyists can’t give more than $75 to officials or groups they recommend.
In the second deal, fat cats Steve Nislick and Wendy Neu agreed to have their anti-horse-carriage group NYCLASS pay $10,000 for not filing lobbying papers. There, too, de Blasio sought cash for CONY, and the two ponied up $125,000.
No question the donors deserve penalties. But what about de Blasio?
A 2013 Conflicts of Interest Board ruling specifically bars the mayor from seeking contributions from anyone whose group “has a matter pending” before the city — precisely what de Blasio did in both cases.
He even held a “kitchen cabinet” breakfast with Capalino and those donors — and kept it off his public schedule. (The mayor now says no lobbying went on.)
And no wonder: The donors wanted his help with a variety of projects, while Capalino had become the city’s top lobbyist thanks to his ties to de Blasio.
Meanwhile, two donors in unrelated cases have now testified to bribing de Blasio, and getting favors from him in return.
How does the mayor skate on all this?
Prosecutors who probed possible de Blasio corruption blasted him for it last year but said they didn’t have enough evidence to meet the Supreme Court’s new higher standard for a conviction.
At least JCOPE says it’s not done probing. Stay tuned.