Mayor de Blasio is setting the bar low to provide basic details about the arrest of his pastor pal, saying simply that he intends to comply with the law for accessing public records.
City Hall and the NYPD have refused since Monday to respond to 14 questions from The Post regarding de Blasio’s phone call to a top cop the night Bishop Orlando Findlayter was spared a night in the clink.
Both agencies also refused to provide a police report on the bishop’s Feb. 10 arrest for a traffic violation.“We’re going to follow all the typical [Freedom of Information Law] protocols,” de Blasio said Thursday.
Findlayter was driving with a suspended license and had two outstanding warrants for civil disobedience busts.
When a reporter asked if that included getting responses from City Hall to questions posed by the media, the longtime advocate for government transparency answered, “I’ve covered this topic.”
Among the details City Hall and the NYPD have refused to provide are the precise time that de Blasio called to inquire about Findlayter – a prominent campaign supporter – and the time the bishop was sprung.
De Blasio has also refused to reveal what time he was notified about the bishop’s release.
This comes as as the mayor — an advocate of government transparency — schedules events that are closed to the press, sometimes without disclosing they’re even happening.
They include:
- Feb. 19 — Meeting with White House adviser Valerie Jarrett at City Hall (unannounced, photo tweeted afterward).
- Feb. 19 — Meeting with Real Estate Board of NY in Midtown (closed door; partial audio released).
- Feb. 7 — Meeting with members of punk band Pussy Riot (closed door, photo tweeted afterward).
- Jan. 2 — Travels to Upper East Side after plowing uproar (unannounced, photo tweeted after)
- Jan. 15 — Meets US Attorney General Eric Holder at City Hall (unannounced, photo tweeted after).