A lawyer for the mayor's nonprofit group says it will no longer cooperate with an investigation by the state ethics commission into its activities, alleging it's politically motivated. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.
Amid a swirl of federal and state investigations into Mayor Bill de Blasio's fundraising activities, a lawyer for the mayor's nonprofit group says his client will not play ball anymore. At least, not with the state ethics commission, which regulates lobbying.
In a sharply worded letter sent to the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics on Friday, lawyer Laurence Laufer says the mayor's nonprofit has gone above and beyond what is reasonable in responding to investigators. He says his client will continue to cooperate with investigations by the U.S. attorney's office and the Manhattan district attorney, but he says the state ethics commission has "obviously become a blatantly political exercise by an agency whose very independence is deeply in question."
The commission has ties to Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has clashed openly with Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In a phone interview with NY1, the executive director of the ethics commission, Seth Agata, said, "An entity cannot choose when it wants to follow the law and cannot choose the government body charged with regulating a specific area. Mr. Laufer tries to do both in that letter."
Agata says it is the first time he is aware of an entity refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the commission.
Earlier in the day, de Blasio spoke about the investigations, arguing that there is a double standard at play.
"I mean, there are massive conflicts of interest going on every day in this country that go fully unexamined," de Blasio said. "What we are doing is doing the people's business, and there is a lot of examination of the work we are doing. And I've said to you, I think there's a double standard here."
That line of defense is one we've been hearing frequently from the mayor. That, along with this letter from his lawyer, seem to be clear signs he plans to fight back hard against these investigations.