Special treatment given to big de Blasio donors

From CBS 2:

Shocking video has surfaced, documenting the easy access achieved by a pair of donors to Mayor Bill de Blasio who reportedly used gifts and bribes to weasel their way into the very heart of the New York Police Department.

A photo taken at a dinner showing donors Jeremy Reichberg and Jona Rechnitz bracketing then-NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks takes on a new whole new meaning in light of the astonishing dash cam video played out at Reichberg’s trial on charges of bribing police officers.

The video shows Reichberg and Rechnitz, who has already pleaded guilty and is testifying as a government witness, somehow gain access to the heavily protected underground garage at the department’s headquarters in lower Manhattan.

“I would expect that the chief, the PC, sent us a representative to walk us up to the private elevator,” Rechnitz said. “I expect nothing less.”

Banks, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, did in fact send an escort who can be seen greeting the pair effusively. Jurors were also shown pictures and video of the pair wearing Santa Claus hats and driving a black Aston Martin to deliver Christmas presents to officers, but it was the unfettered access to police headquarters that’s riled police experts.

BDB helped his corrupt friends

From the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio repeatedly ordered his aides to intervene on behalf of two deep-pocketed donors who sought favors from City Hall before both were arrested in a sweeping corruption probe, newly released emails obtained by the Daily News reveal.

Brooklyn real estate developers Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg sent several emails to the mayor personally and to his top aides, often demanding City Hall’s help with real estate problems.

Whenever the mayor was contacted by Rechnitz, in particular, he responded immediately, steering the donor’s requests to the top levels of City Hall.

Both men appear to have benefited from their top-level access.

After meeting with a top City Hall aide to contest citations for operating an illegal hotel at a Manhattan building he owned, Rechnitz paid fines but dodged a vacate order — a tactic the city has used against others.

Reichberg got a discount on what he felt were overcharges to a water bill after reaching out to City Hall.

Rechnitz secretly pleaded guilty to corruption charges last year and cooperated with the Manhattan U.S. attorney's probe of de Blasio's fundraising tactics.

Reichberg faces charges of bribing several top NYPD brass to get favors. He has denied wrongdoing and faces trial.

Rechnitz and Reichberg both sponsored fund-raisers for de Blasio's 2013 campaign. Rechnitz also wrote a $50,000 check to de Blasio's now-defunct nonprofit, Campaign for One New York, on Jan. 28, 2014, and steered another $102,300 to an upstate Democratic committee as part of the mayor's failed 2014 bid to swing the state Senate to the Democrats.