...cryptocommie mayor of New York and for some reason a Dem candidate for president in 2020. Corrupt and incompetent, his qualifications for office seem to consist of being married to a black woman, with whom he honeymooned in Cuba. He has a preppy-looking son named Dante, whose Divine Comedy involved getting his back hair up when a police car drove past him slowly. New Yorkers voted for him, so they deserved him...’s former defense lawyer — who immediately floated the same theory that helped get de Blasio off the hook in a "pay-to-play" corruption probe.
Barry Berke appeared to telegraph his planned strategy on behalf of Benjamin, who resigned last week following his indictment in an alleged bribery scheme involving more than $50,000 in illegal donations to his campaign committees.
"This is a very unusual political corruption case because the charges are based solely on political contributions and no personal benefits," Berke said during an appearance in Manhattan federal court.
in 2016, de Blasio was referred for investigation by the state Board of Elections, sparking state and federal probes into fundraising for his 2013 mayoral campaign, his controversial Campaign for One New York nonprofit and the 2014 state Senate elections.
The following year, then-acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon Kim said he’d decided not to file charges against de Blasio in part because of "the particular difficulty in proving criminal intent in corruption schemes where there is no evidence of personal profit."
Also during Tuesday’s court session, Judge Paul Oetken gave Benjamin permission to travel to New Jersey after Berke said that "he has family there" and prosecutors didn’t object.