Over/Under On A De Blasio Indictment

That's the front cover of the NY Post and it refers to this (which is actually from the NY Times):

To most, they are known by their public personas as speechwriters, political consultants or, in one case, a United States ambassador to South Africa.

But to the office of New York’s mayor, they have another identity: agents of the city.

What makes them unique, the office argued on Thursday, is that the communications between Mayor Bill de Blasio and the five close advisers should be as immune from public scrutiny as those of any city employee.

City Hall described the designation amid mounting scrutiny over its shielding of communications between the mayor and Jonathan Rosen, whom the counsel to the mayor described at a news conference on Wednesday as an “agent of the city.” Mr. Rosen, who corresponds and meets with the mayor regularly, is also a principal at a public affairs consulting firm, BerlinRosen, whose clients include real estate developers and nonprofits.

Others on the list provided on Thursday rounded out a who’s who of figures often cited by government watchdog groups as representing New York’s “shadow government” under Mr. de Blasio: Nicholas Baldick and Bill Hyers, of Hilltop Public Solutions, a political consulting firm; John Del Cecato, of AKPD Message and Media, who has helped Mr. de Blasio write important speeches; and the United States ambassador, Patrick Gaspard.

None received payment from the city, the mayor’s office said. But with the exception of Mr. Gaspard, each represents a firm that got large payments from Mr. de Blasio’s political nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York, now at the center of several inquiries into the mayor’s fund-raising efforts.

One firm, BerlinRosen, has received subpoenas in connection with investigations by the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and the Manhattan district attorney into Mr. de Blasio’s fund-raising on behalf of Senate Democrats in 2014.

The notion of designating a special class of unpaid advisers — many of whom also represent clients with business before the city — appeared to be an unusual, if not novel, approach to city governance, former officials said. City Hall, however, was careful to clarify that “agent of the city” is not an official designation.

Agent of the city.

When you start doing shit like this, you know the end is near.