Bill De Blasio’s GOP Challenger Nicole Malliotakis Calls for Probe into Pay-to-Play Claims

Malliotakis and DeBlasio Getty Images

NEW YORK CITY, New York — Republican mayoral candidate Nicole Malliotakis launched a blistering attack on left-wing Mayor Bill de Blasio Friday, accusing him of placing a “for sale” sign at the gates of City Hall, and calling for an investigation of allegations of pay-to-play.

“There’s literally a “For Sale” sign at the gates and we need to change this culture,” Malliotakis said, according to the New York Post.

Malliotakis’s remarks came after testimony from wealthy donor Jona Rechnitz, who claimed he bought access to de Blasio. Testifying at a bribery trial of the former head of the corrections union, Rechnitz said that he donated more than $100,000 to the mayor’s political causes and that it gave him significant access.

“Whenever we would call [the mayor’s fundraiser] for access or for a ­favor, we were getting the response that we expected and the results we were expecting,” he testified, according to the Post.

Malliotakis went on to call for an investigation into the allegations of corruption and noted that the Rechnitz claims were plastered all over the front pages of New York’s local papers.

“What today’s headlines really show is that there needs to be an investigation that’s reopened here,” she added. “It’s really shocking.”

The Manhattan District Attorney investigated allegations about de Blasio’s fundraising, but no charges were filed.

De Blasio pushed back Saturday against the claims made by Rechnitz.

“That’s just false,” de Blasio said, according to the New York Daily News. “He’s trying to present some great closeness not just with me but with others and it’s just not true.”

Malliotakis is perceived as a long-shot candidate in the race, with polls showing her trailing by as much as 44 points. But the long-standing allegations of corruption against the mayor refuse to disappear, and Malliotakis is hoping that New Yorkers will vote for change amid worsening conditions in the Big Apple.

“We’re spending a lot more money than we were 3.5 years ago and yet things have deteriorated in our city. Our quality of life has been ruined,” she said, according to the Post. “We’re spending nearly double what we were on the homeless crisis and yet it has gotten worse. “

Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY

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