Some politicians possess the baffling Clintonesque ability to turn any routine matter into a scandal, even when it wasn’t a scandal to begin with.
New York City’s Bill de Blasio possesses this unique superpower. The failing mayor and aspiring failing 2020 presidential candidate can turn an everyday matter, like a fender bender, into Watergate with unnecessary cover-ups, and secrets.
On a Saturday morning in August 2015, Mayor de Blasio was in the back seat of a black NYPD Chevy Tahoe bound for an event in Harlem when a driver changing lanes slammed into his ride.
No one was hurt, but the commanding officer of the mayor’s executive protection unit, Howard Redmond, was furious. Text messages obtained by the Daily News show he immediately ordered the incident be covered up to protect de Blasio’s image.
“As per CO [the commanding officer] no one is to know about this,” Sgt. Jerry Ioveno texted members of the unit, referring to Redmond. “Not even the other teams.”
“No one is to know,” he repeated.
The eagle has not landed.
No report on the crash is publicly available in state Department of Motor Vehicles records. Redmond allegedly ordered that the cop behind the wheel, Detective Edgar Robles, be officially listed as the driver of a backup SUV, text messages show. That way, the unit could more plausibly claim the mayor wasn’t in the vehicle involved in the collision, a source close to the executive protection unit said.
… Both passenger-side doors of the vehicle were damaged. The ride was out of service for two weeks, the source close to the executive protection unit said, suggesting that the damage was larger than the $1,000 minimum required to report a crash to the DMV.
That’s one potential violation. Here’a second one.
State law requires all occupants of vehicles involved in accidents to stay at the scene. But a retired member of the executive protection unit said it wasn’t unusual for a VIP under the unit’s protection to be taken away as long as there was no serious injury.
Laws are obviously for little people.
Bill de Blasio left the scene of an accident. The crash wasn’t reported to the DMV. And there will be zero consequences. But just try asking for a plastic bag and you’ll be shot 39 times.
“Is Eagle p—-d?” Ioveno asked in a text message, using de Blasio’s code name.
“Not really,” a detective wrote.
An hour later, the coverup kicked into gear, text messages show.
“No one is to know; also, Eagle was not in the limo … are we clear guys please?” Ioveno said, using the code word limo for the NYPD Chevy Tahoe.
Redmond allegedly became infuriated when members of the unit drove the damaged SUV back to Gracie Mansion instead of 1 Police Plaza.
“He’s p—-d about people knowing the story of the accident, not the accident itself. And that the limo was brought back to [Gracie Mansion] and a press guy could have taken a picture,” Bravo wrote.
“He asked me to tell you guys all this and that we all need to be sharper.”
Better at covering up accidents.
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