Mayor Bill de Blasio will be hitting up his donors again soon — this time to raise $300,000 to pay off a two-year-old legal bill.
The City Council will introduce legislation Wednesday that allows elected officials to cover their legal expenses through legal defense funds.
The mayor ran up his tab with the firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP during a year-long probe by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office into his fundraising activities on behalf of state Senate Democrats in 2014.
The investigation, which closed in early 2017 with no charges filed, examined whether the mayor orchestrated a purposeful evasion of campaign finance limits by funneling large donations to state Senate candidates through Democratic campaign committees.
Taxpayers have already coughed up $2.6 million to defend the mayor in probes he claimed were part of his official duties and more than $11 million to defend his aides who were investigated by the offices of the Manhattan US attorney and Manhattan DA.
Legislation proposed by Brooklyn Councilman Stephen Levin would set a limit on donations to legal defense funds at $5,000, even though de Blasio himself recently pushed for revisions that lowered the maximum campaign donation to $2,000.
The legislation, first reported by PoliticoNY, would also prohibit contributions from top officials at entities doing business with the city, or from corporations or LLCs.
The terms offer Hizzoner a far better shake than he would have gotten under current rules, which consider legal defense donations as gifts that are limited to $50.
The mayor has been eagerly waiting for the council to change the law, claiming he can’t afford to pay his legal tab from his own pocket.
“We need a methodology to achieve that and that’s something the City Council has to act on,” he said in June.
City Hall didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.