Political pundits are having a field day after a directive came down Monday from the federal court delaying justice for Mayor Adams until after the November election. The case involves the pay-to-play schemes, the most reported involving getting an airline upgrade not so dissimilar to the one our bookie gets. But for Adams it’s a felony. He is in a position to influence decisions involving a great deal of money. In this case he is alleged to have used his influence to get a building’s occupancy status through some red tape. So the case, which was expected to be heard in court in April, looks like it is delayed until November.
There is no doubt that we should expect our elected and appointed officials in highly influential positions be beyond reproach when it comes to potential conflicts of interest. But it’s turned out, since the Trump DOJ case details were so public, a good number of people did conclude, in gunning for Trump, the DOJ was weaponized.
There were certainly those who voted for Trump who say a top reason is they didn’t like the idea that the courts could ‘go after’ a candidate for office they didn’t like. It’s hard to forget, the biggest reported crime was Trump paying someone off (with his own money) and not reporting it properly. Something many consider a petty misstep – at most.
This move, by the DOJ, to wait until after the election, evens the playing field. No excuses. If Adams doesn’t get past the primary in June, there are no excuses that his candidacy was derailed over a court case.
Cuomo the quiet one…
Notice Andrew Cuomo is silent on the Monday news. Smart. The earlier he comes out for his run for mayor, the more time he will be in the news for behavior that’s going to hurt him. While some of the more recent polls put Cuomo well ahead of the field, most believe that when people are reminded of the abuse accusations against him and that congestion pricing might have been pioneered by him while he was governor, he might lose double digit numbers in the polls. But Brad Lander, who paid a visit to our Woodside offices Friday (see our reports in this issue), was not shy about laying down comments after hearing the news, saying he (Adams) stands for ‘himself.’
Lander: Okay to involuntarily hospitalize mentally ill
One of our Pol Position staffers prodded Brad Lander to come to our offices last week and it was an insightful back-and-forth. While we pushed the current comptroller on a basic issue we have been writing about; local non-profit service providers having to wait more than a year to get reimbursed for service to our kids and others, it also seems some charter schools, who are running pre-k programs, are just getting paid now for the last school year ….. That’s the 2023-2024 school year. Although he said it wasn’t the fault of his office, what stood out to us is how he is toning down the rhetoric that public safety is not a big issue. He supports the idea of involuntary hospitalization of mentally ill lingering on the subway, while just a few years ago most on the left didn’t want to touch that subject.
