With assist from Amira McKee
THE FINAL STRAW? Building government Erden Arkan should not have mates within the Trump administration like Mayor Eric Adams does. So whereas the Division of Justice moved to dismiss the mayor’s case, the wheels of justice stored turning for Arkan.
The Turkish-American co-owner of KSK Building Group was given a lightweight sentence of 1 12 months probation at this time in Manhattan federal courtroom. He’ll additionally pay a $9,500 effective and $18,000 in restitution after pleading responsible in January to giving 10 staff $1,250 every to donate to Adams’ marketing campaign.
However even whereas accepting that he broke New York Metropolis marketing campaign finance legal guidelines, Arkan’s lawyer Jonathan Rosen offered him as a sufferer of “an unprecedented act of prosecutorial discretion,” suggesting that federal prosecutors with the Southern District of New York wished to salvage some type of a win following the tumult and rounds of resignations over the dismissal of Adams’ case.
Rosen additionally recommended Arkan’s case by no means ought to have been introduced in federal courtroom within the first place, arguing he was “targeted… to serve some greater end in a bureaucratic power struggle over the Adams case.”
Whereas an official from the Turkish consulate helped coordinate Arkan’s Might 2021 fundraising occasion for Adams, Rosen stated that Arkan “never had any knowledge of foreign interference” alleged by federal prosecutors. He maintained that neither the Adams marketing campaign nor the Turkish consulate knew about Arkan’s straw donor scheme, which he’d cooked up himself.
Choose Dale Ho dismissed the arguments. Whereas he conceded “it is true that there is some incongruency between the government’s handling of Mr. Arkan’s case and Mayor Adams’ case,” he was agency that “there is not a shred of evidence in the record” indicating that the prosecutors acted wrongly prosecuting Arkan.
One other associated case hasn’t been resolved but. Former Adams aide Mohamed Bahi pleaded responsible Tuesday to serving to to arrange a separate straw donor scheme for Adams’ 2021 marketing campaign.
Whereas Adams himself hasn’t been accused of coordinating straw donations, the observe has been a significant issue for his marketing campaign. Adams’ previous good friend Dwayne Montgomery pleaded responsible final 12 months together with different co-conspirators to giving Adams unlawful donations, and THE CITY has reported on quite a few examples of extra obvious straw donations to Adams.
Rep. Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor, instructed Playbook earlier this week that this wasn’t an excellent consequence for Adams’ case.
“As a prosecutor, I never liked when, ultimately, the only people held accountable for their crimes were the lower level people,” he stated. “But under the circumstances, when you’ve charged someone and there’s a legitimate reason to charge that person, the right thing to do is to finish off the case.” — Jeff Coltin
LET’S ALL GO TO THE (ASSEMBLY) LOBBY: New York moviegoers would possibly quickly have a neater time skipping the more and more prolonged block of commercials and trailers proven earlier than the movie begins, if a invoice launched this week turns into regulation.
Assemblymember Clyde Vanel needs to require theaters to show the time a film really begins when selling showings or promoting tickets. His proposal comes as films more and more begin as a lot as half an hour after the marketed time.
“For the consumer, this can have a real monetary and social impact,” he wrote in his memo accompanying the invoice. “Consumers not only may leave obligations earlier than they needed to in order to see the motion picture, but they may also consume their snacks purchased at the theater prior to the movie beginning.”
“There is no justification for deceiving consumers,” he wrote, particularly since moviegoers “cannot bring their own snacks to eat if they consumed their purchased snacks within the extremely long 30-minute preview period.”
The invoice wouldn’t apply to broadcasts of the Meeting session — the place beginning inside half an hour of the scheduled time could be a significant enchancment. — Invoice Mahoney
NO ‘SHOOK ONES’: Queens Borough President Donovan Richards pledged at this time to assist end up Black voters for Zohran Mamdani in November, evoking each Martin Luther King Jr. and Mobb Deep in his enthusiastic endorsement.
The Democratic mayoral nominee’s insurance policies — together with a lease freeze and free and quick buses — are widespread sense, not socialism, Richards stated within the borough that he and Mamdani each name residence. Richmond Hill, Queens was the final cease of Mamdani’s “Five Boroughs Against Trump” tour.
“Count me in as a democratic socialist if it means that everyday New Yorkers will be able to afford this city,” Richards stated, including that civil rights icon King “was called a socialist and communist as well” and referencing hip-hoppers Mobb Deep by boasting that there aren’t any “shook ones” within the borough, a reference to the group’s hit tune. Richards had previewed his endorsement of Mamdani a day earlier.
One among Mamdani’s largest weak spots electorally has been politically average Black voters in areas like southeast Queens. And whereas he now has Richards as a surrogate, Queens Democratic Social gathering chief Rep. Greg Meeks has but to endorse him. (A Meeks spokesperson didn’t reply at this time to a question on whether or not the Home member plans to fulfill with Mamdani.)
Mamdani’s help within the main was stronger in components of the town which might be closely gentrified. Southeast Queens contains neighborhoods which have resisted being priced out.
Mamdani acknowledged the important stability between creating properties for brand spanking new residents with out pushing out longer-term residents.
“One of the many things I appreciate about the borough president is how he has been able to chart a course of building more housing (though) not at the expense of displacing those who already live there,” he stated. — Emily Ngo
SEX WORK DEBATE: Andrew Cuomo went on the offensive at this time over Mamdani’s previous help for state laws that might decriminalize intercourse work in New York.
The previous governor stated in an announcement that he spent years preventing iterations of the invoice over issues it might result in a rise in intercourse trafficking and exploitation of susceptible New Yorkers.
“Mark my words: This is the real world and if passed, this legislation will open the floodgates,” Cuomo stated within the assertion. “Mamdani may not remember the bad old days of New York City, where Times Square was seedy and crime infested and New Yorkers knew which neighborhoods to avoid at all costs. We do, and no one should be eager to return to that era.”
Cuomo’s stance was backed by Sonia Ossorio, government director at Nationwide Group for Girls New York Metropolis. Ossorio has beforehand criticized Mamdani’s place on decriminalization.
“Full decriminalization doesn’t protect vulnerable people — it expands a market that thrives on exploitation, human trafficking, and crime in our neighborhoods,” she stated in an announcement.
Mamdani twice co-sponsored a invoice that might decriminalize intercourse work and clear previous arrest information associated to prostitution whereas nonetheless permitting regulation enforcement to go after trafficking operations.
Marketing campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec declined to say whether or not Mamdani nonetheless helps the idea and whether or not he would advocate for the laws from Metropolis Corridor if elected. However she famous that the Democratic nominee has pledged extra sources to help victims of prostitution and intercourse trafficking.
“While Andrew Cuomo is only interested in ‘governing’ behind a phone screen, Zohran is committed to genuine public safety, including combatting sex trafficking,” Pekec stated in an announcement that referenced a brand new division Mamdani plans to create. “His Department of Community Safety will invest $40 million towards victims services including for programs like Safe Horizon, for which funding has been cut in past budgets.”
The problem of whether or not to decriminalize intercourse work has been the topic of heated debate over time. Organizations like DecrimNY, a coalition of intercourse staff and numerous organizations aligned with the decriminalization motion, argue the modifications would make intercourse staff safer by permitting them to report violence or unsafe working circumstances to authorities with out concern of arrest whereas delivering extra autonomy to consenting adults. — Joe Anuta
CANNABIS REGULATORS SUED AGAIN: A dozen hashish dispensary licensees are suing the state over a flip-flop on the hashish company’s interpretation of the state’s 2021 legalization regulation.
“The consequences are staggering. Petitioners’ investments, often more than a million dollars, are now at risk” the petition reads. “Their livelihoods are being threatened.”
The petitioners are licensed below the Conditional Grownup-use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) and Social and Financial Fairness (SEE) licensing applications, which prioritize entrepreneurs with previous hashish convictions, ladies and minorities.
The authorized problem seeks to dam regulators from imposing a brand new interpretation of college distance necessities within the state’s hashish legalization regulation, which might power licensees out of their dispensary places that had been beforehand accepted by the company.
Company about-face: Earlier this month, the Workplace of Hashish Administration notified greater than 100 licensees that their dispensary places could possibly be impacted as a result of company’s misinterpretation of state regulation.
The licensees are asking the courtroom to annul the company’s new interpretation of the regulation, declare their places compliant and block the state from taking any enforcement actions in opposition to them over the college distance requirement.
A spokesperson for the OCM stated that the workplace doesn’t touch upon pending litigation.
The company is proposing a legislative repair that might permit licensees to stay of their places, however emphasised on its web site that passing such laws “is not a guarantee.” The state can be creating an $15 million applicant aid fund for as much as $250,000 per applicant to assist discover new places. — Mona Zhang
—26 FED PLAZA: As fewer immigrants present up for his or her courtroom hearings, arrests at 26 Federal Plaza’s immigration courthouses are nearing a standstill. (THE CITY)
— GOV. CLEMENCY: Hochul pardoned a Laotian immigrant Friday to cease his deportation. (The New York Occasions)
— CUT THE CHECK: Progressive Democrats within the New York Legislature are decrying Hochul’s $2 billion rebate program as fiscally irresponsible amid looming federal cuts. (Gothamist)
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