A major donor to Mayor Bill de Blasio pleaded guilty to using campaign contributions as bribes to buy better treatment at City Hall — and yet the mayor, who took the money and aided the donor, was not charged with a crime.
Another donor pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud that included making political contributions in exchange of official action — and again, no charges for the mayor.
The outcome has led some, including the WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer, to an obvious question.
“How can someone be guilty of giving you a bribe and you not be guilty of taking it?” Mr. Lehrer asked Mr. de Blasio on Friday.
It’s abundantly clear,” the mayor said. But it wasn’t.
“This man did a lot of bad things in a lot of places,” Mr. de Blasio said of Harendra Singh, a restaurateur who pleaded guilty to bribing the mayor. “I’m someone who never did, never would be involved in such an effort.”
Several factors were in play.
The United States Supreme Court set a much higher bar for public corruption cases with its 2016 ruling that reversed the bribery conviction of the former Virginia governor, Bob McDonnell. In the ruling, the court determined that making introductions or setting up meetings, even in exchange for gifts or financial benefits, did not constitute a crime.
As a consequence, several prominent corruption convictions were set aside, and prosecutors have become more cautious in taking on such cases.
Furthermore, bribery cases against elected officials based on campaign contributions are rare, the legal experts said. That is in part because the Supreme Court has drawn a clear distinction between a legal contribution to a political campaign and other kinds of payments like cash, gifts or other benefits that in effect go into the pocket of a public servant.
It may also have been that it was simply easier for prosecutors to bring charges against the person buying access, because the men admitted guilt, in the face of abundant evidence, as part of plea deals in which they agreed to cooperate with the government against other defendants. Mr. Singh is a witness in corruption trials on Long Island; Mr. Rechnitz testified against a labor official who was accused of steering millions of dollars of officers’ retirement funds into a hedge fund in exchange for promised kickbacks.
9 comments:
No comments because no surprise. Only 8 more years folks.
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF MAYORS CAN'T FUCKING STAND HIM. HE'S NOT GOING TOO FAR IN 2020, MAYBE TO THE UNEMPLOYMENT LINE!!
Nope, 4 more. deBlasio's election came after 2 term limits were restored.
The Teflon turd.
In all of my decades as a native, third generation New Yorker, I have never seen anyone who is more intensely incompetent, evil, hyper-arrogant, psychopathic, and profoundly unqualified than Bill de BLASS-hole, and the kakistocracy of his extreme, sycophantic enablers of a completely derelict and worthless City Hall——and, one that now completely DEVALUES honesty itself——to pathologically traitorous and tyrannical effect!
What a horrid example of 300% false, fake and monstrously failed leadership looks like that is on shameful and disgraced display for all to see and cringe over! This mayor whose afflictions are extreme cognitive dissonance and sociopathy is even more entrenched in corruption, graft and greed——than Tammany Hall's Boss Tweed, Rudy Giuliani and walking corpse Michael Bloomberg COMBINED!
Hence, it's official: de BLASS-hole IS the quintessential, class A narcissist: Arrogant, aggressive, arbitrary, deceitful, manipulative, greedy, selfish, cowardly, corrupt, confabulating, condescending, counterproductive, capricious, dishonest, dishonorable, disloyal, derelict, disgraced, depraved, evasive, egocentric, exalted, false, fake, failed, grotesque, harassing, headstrong, incompetent, journalist-phobic, kakistocratic, looney, mad (with the illusion of absolute power), malicious, moronic, neurotic, obnoxious, passive-aggressive, profligate, quixotic, reductive, recalcitrant, ridiculous, sardonic, sarcastic, snarky, tyrannical, unresponsive, unrepentant, unapologetic, voracious, venomous, vituperative, wanton——and, a xenogenic, yammering zit that is finally about to pop!
If I don't see indictment, followed by handcuffs and a speedy arraignment before Winter's end, then I will never trust the American justice system ever again!
On previous poster "All my decades":
Q: Can he cram even more adjectives and clauses into those sentences?
A: Sure.
New York City - You Will Never Find a More Retched Hive of Scum and Villainy - Proceed with Caution - SickofTheBS
Beware!
The City Council will again show their draconian opposition to the will of We the People.
These despotic fools will again provide special dispensation for themselves and the overlord of this city for an additional term...
To last anonymous: Now, is that all that you got out of the previous message that nailed Bill de BLASS-hole's mendacious, mentally ill ass to the wall?
Please stay in school (or re-enroll) forthwith!
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