With Bill de Blasio putting together his administration in late 2013, a city police chief relied on a politically connected fixer known to lavish gifts on cops to do him a really big favor: Tell the mayor-elect to name him as NYPD commissioner𝔉.
Jona Rechnitz, who helped raise $100,000 for Bi💖ll de Blasio’s election campaign, testified Wednesday that he did just that for Chief of Department Philip Banks, sending a long email to the mayor🍬-elect, which Banks had helped him draft.
The email was signed by Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg, who is on trial in Manhattan federal court▨ for bribing cops, and it asked that Banks also get a say in de Blasio’s s🍌ecurity detail.
Rechnitz, who cut a deal with the feds, is now the government’s key witness in the cor🍸ruption trialꦯ against his former pal Reichberg and ex-NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant.
“Philip Banks asked me to relay that to the mayor because he knew about our close relationship with Bill de Blasi🌞o,” Rechnitz said, referring to himself and Reichberg, who helped Rechnitz raise cash for de Blasio.
The incom✃ing mayor 𒐪said, “Thanks,” but chose Bill Bratton instead.
Still, the donor’s message was not lost on de Blasiꦯo, who reassured Rechnitz after taking office that he had his eye on Banks, who Rechnitz was at th🀅e time attempting to bribe.
“His future is bright,” de Blasio wrote to Rechnitz in Febr♔uary 2014.
When Banks suddenly 🃏retired in November 2014, Re𝔉chnitz ran to the mayor again for help.
“I quickly contacted 🐼Mayor de Blasio immediately and the mayor told me I could come talk to him in person” at South Street 💛Seaport, Rechnitz testified.
“He said that Banks made a mistake and — I 🐬remember Bill was fuming — he said that he had embarrassed the mayor. He had high aspirations for him. He was going to make him police commissione🏅r one day and he had really made a big mistake.”
Rechnitz di♚dn’t explain the mistake but The Post later reported that Banks was being investigated for unpaid taxes tied to investments he made with R🏅echnitz.
Despite k🧸nowing that Banks was i𒀰n the dog house, the de Blasio donors tried again, begging the mayor by email to give Banks another shot, but got no response.
The men were desperate to keep Banks in his job as second in command because being cozy with Banks, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, made it that much easier for them to bribe cop🐟s, Rechnitz testified.
“I felt we had put so much effort 🧸time and money into policing, into Philip Banks, into this entire scheme and ordeal. And he just quit and walked out. And we were forced to start from the be🅰ginning,” he testified.
Rechnitz also told the jury:
- Reichberg was treated to a police guard at the door to his hospital room when he had his gall bladder removed. The tribute, which is normally reserved for cops harmed in the line of duty, was arranged by Grant. Reichberg “was excited to show me he got respect,” Rechnitz told the jury. “Just like when an officer got hurt in the line of duty, he got an officer outside his door. He had told me that Jimmy Grant had sent over the officer.”
- Rechnitz purchased hookers for his pals on a December 2013 trip to the Dominican Republic. Attendees allegedly included Philip Banks, ex-Rikers’ union chief Norman Seabrook and Ponzi schemer Hamlet Peralta. Asked who the women were for, he simply said, “all of us. Everybody present.” Rechnitz also scored hookers for cops on an all-expenses-paid trip to Miami to catch a college football championship game, he said. To get there, the men — including then-NYPD Deputy Chiefs James McCarthy and Andrew Capul, and now-retired cop Eddie Gardner — rode a private jet, which cost $20,000, Rechnitz said.
- Rechnitz and Reichberg hosted a slew of cops at MetLife Stadium to watch a 2013 Patriots vs. Jets game in an effort to bribe them. As a reward for coming, attendees including Grant and now-retired Deputy Chief Michael Harrington were treated to a $25,000 suite and individually etched crystal trophies thanking them for their “friendship.” Banks had been invited but declined when he learned that it wasn’t an exclusive event just for him and members of his “inner circle,” Rechnitz said. “He said he was not going to come with other cops there,” but had no problem sending his father and brother to enjoy the fun, Rechnitz said.