Mayor Breaks Silence on 'Agents of the City' Ruling During Weekly Radio Show (De Blasio)

NY1 ^ | 24 March 2017 | Grace Rauh

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Mayor Breaks Silence on 'Agents of the City' Ruling During Weekly Radio Show

By Grace Rauh Friday, March 24, 2017 at 11:25 AM EDT NEW YORK - Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday spoke out for the first time about his loss in court to NY1 over his emails with a so-called "Agent of the City."

The mayor on Thursday refused to answer our questions about the lawsuit and the emails he exchanged with an outside advisor - emails a state Supreme Court judge ruled that the city must turn over to NY1 and the New York Post.

• READ THE FULL DECISION IN PDF FORM

In an interview on WNYC radio Friday morning, he did discuss his plans to appeal the decision. And he said he is doing so because he said his lawyers assured his outside advisors that they could provide direct advice to the mayor on a number of issues and have it remain confidential.

NY1 did not agree with that assessment and neither did the judge in the case, Joan Lobis.

The mayor explained that he has asked his outside advisors going forward to be very careful about what they put in emails to city officials.

"I think there's a human reality here. There's people you want to seek advice from that are your friends, your personal advisors. Everyone has those people in their life. And there still is a place in this world for a confidential conversation so that people can speak freely and think openly about issues, but in terms of anything involving city business and city emails, we've instructed those individuals not to communicate," De Blasio said.

For more than two years, NY1 has been trying to get the emails the mayor exchanged with one of his outside advisors, Jonathan Rosen.

Rosen runs a major PR firm, BerlinRosen, which represents real estate developers, labor unions and non-profit groups, many clients with business before the city.

At the same time, he was treated as a de-facto city employee and involved in all sorts of high level discussions about top policy issues at City Hall.

NY1 is hoping these emails shed light on his relationship with the mayor and the conflicts of interest issues that have arisen because of their close ties.

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Video at source.

Rosen runs a major PR firm, BerlinRosen, which represents real estate developers, labor unions and non-profit groups, many clients with business before the city.

At the same time, he was treated as a de-facto city employee and involved in all sorts of high level discussions about top policy issues at City Hall.

Uh-oh! De Blasio !

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Shoulda got his own server.

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Good luck De Blasio! You'll need it.