Metro

Wills charges Schneiderman tried race-baiting in 2010 primary

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman tried to play the race card in his 2010 primary battle against Nassau DA Kathleen Rice, drafting a fellow Dem to do his dirty work, new court papers charge.

Schneiderman asked state Sen. Shirley Huntley, who is black and was supporting him, to call Rice, the white prosecutor running against him in the Democratic primary for state attorney general, a racist, according to the filing.

“Schneiderman asked for Huntley’s support as her district was significantly African-American and was thought to be the tipping point for the race,” according to court papers filed last week by embattled City Councilman Ruben Wills, Huntley’s former top aide.

Schneiderman, who was then a state senator, wanted Huntley to say Rice used her position to “unfairly and disproportionately prosecute African-Americans,” court papers say.

“He encouraged Huntley to gather crowds in predominately minority neighborhoods and then publicly and falsely accuse Kathleen Rice of racism,” according to the filing.

Huntley, who represented southeast Queens, refused Schneiderman’s request, sparking bad blood between the two, court papers say.

Wills — who was indicted by the Attorney General’s Office in May on charges of stealing more than $30,000 in taxpayer money from a charity he founded and using some of the cash for shopping sprees — may just be trying to save himself with the race-baiting allegations. Yet the charges could impact Schneiderman’s reelection bid this year and Rice’s current congressional campaign.

The allegations came in a legal filing in which Wills is seeking to remove Schneiderman from his case and have a special prosecutor appointed.

Huntley was recently released from federal prison. She pleaded guilty in 2013 to taking $87,000 from a nonprofit she started. Schneiderman began investigating charities linked to her shortly after he took office in 2011.

Huntley declined to comment but said of Schneiderman in a 2013 videotaped interview posted to YouTube that “There were things that he asked me to do that were not kosher.”

Schneiderman’s office declined to comment.

Rice’s office also said she had no comment.