Metro

Feds probe Qns. GOP ‘con’sultants

The FBI is investigating the Queens Republican Party, its consultants and at least three people it recommended to the city Board of Elections, according to sources recently quizzed by federal agents.

The probe appears to be focused on how board employees may have used their official positions to further their careers as political consultants, as well as their party’s ambitions in local primary elections.

Board employees are recommended by both political parties in each of the five boroughs and are hired by board commissioners.

The names of at least three employees recommended by the Queens GOP — including Stephen Graves, whom the board suspended in April after being caught on tape soliciting cash from a company seeking a contract — came up in questions posed by the FBI, the sources said.

One source said Queens GOP Chairman Philip Ragusa and Executive Vice Chairman Vincent Tabone pushed a board official out of her job for not taking a rival, Myrna Littlewort, off the ballot during a state committee leadership race.

The official, Katherine James, the board’s former deputy chief clerk, said, “They wanted Myrna off the ballot, and there was no way I could do that fair and square.”

The federal probe stems from reports in The Post detailing politicians’ complaints that Queens GOP consultants tried milking them for cash, according to two sources interviewed by the feds.