De Blasio Won’t Use Taxpayer Money for His Legal Defense, He Says

By Jeff Mays, LONG ISLAND CITY—Mayor Bill de Blasio said he won’t use taxpayer money to pay the lawyers representing him in various federal and state probes around his fundraising efforts — and will instead launch a fundraiser to raise the cash to pay them. “All legal efforts on my behalf are not paid for by the taxpayer, as opposed to other city employees,” de Blasio said about the $11.6 million in contracts the city handed out to several firms specializing in white collar crime to represent city employees in the probes. dnainfo.com/new-york.