As the mayor looks to his re-election campaign, he is dealing with a controversy over emails with some past contributors to his campaign. NY1's Courtney Gross filed the following report.

Last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he did not really know two campaign contributors very well. 

"I met them first around the time of the general election. I hadn't known them previously and really haven't seen them in the past year or more," de Blasio said on April 10, 2016.

"But they are two individuals I just don't know well," the mayor said on April 11, 2016.

"I didn't know them personally," de Blasio said Monday.

The mayor has downplayed his relationship with the two men for years. They fundraised for him, forking over thousands of dollars to his campaign and causes. They were then arrested in a sweeping corruption probe.

Now, new emails between City Hall and the men show they reached out to the administration and could receive a prompt response, even from the mayor himself. 

In one case, one of the men recommends someone as a new building commissioner. The mayor responds, "I'm all ears, Jona. We've been looking for additional candidates."

Elsewhere, the men asked City Hall to help them deal with city fees, like for an illegal hotel and overdue water bills.

On the Road to City Hall Monday night, de Blasio said the men never received preferential treatment. 

"Well, I can say with assurance, and now you got a lot of evidence of it, people who wanted certain outcomes didn't get them," de Blasio said. "The results are, these folks were judged on the merits, and the merits found them wrong."

He gave a staunch defense of how these emails, and how quickly he would respond to these campaign donors, passing along their requests to top aides.

He tells NY1 he is not changing his approach if he is re-elected this fall.

"There are people I've known for decades from my neighborhoods. There are people I've known from the business community, the labor community. You think that's going to stop, Errol? It's part of the public process," de Blasio said. "I am not going to start saying I am not going to get emails from people and not respond to them. It's part of what we do in this work."

This will be the last Mondays with the Mayor before Election Day so as not to give one candidate an advantage over another.