De Blasio, Jared Kushner Traded Friendly Emails: Report

NEW YORK, NY — Mayor Bill de Blasio has prided himself on being a "leading anti-Trump voice," but emails show he considered the president's son-in-law a potential ally, according to a Politico New York report published Tuesday. City Hall released three years' worth of emails showing the mayor and his aides exchanging pleasantries, requests and event invites with White House adviser Jared Kushner, the story says.

De Blasio wrote to Kushner, a real estate developer who's married to President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka, about a year ago asking him to broker a meeting between the then-president-elect and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the report says.

“Finally, whenever you have a moment for a drink or a cup of coffee, I'd love to spend a little time with you," the mayor ended his message on Nov. 26, 2016, in the early stages of Trump's transition into the White House. "I can only imagine how tough your schedule has become, and I'm happy to accommodate whatever time and place works for you."

Kushner replied, agreeing to arrange the meeting and saying it "would be a pleasure to get together" with de Blasio. Trump met with the group of mayors the next month, according to Politico.

Kushner was also friendly with Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for housing and economic development. He reportedly asked her to help his friend negotiate a community board issue involving a the private Collegiate School in February 2015, before Trump entered the presidential race.

Kushner also asked Glen to speak at an event sponsored by the New York Observer, the newspaper he formerly owned, the same year. She agreed and he praised her speech the next day, Politico reported.

"Thank you for coming by last night. You spoke really well and I thought your message to the crowd was spot on," he wrote, according to the story.

De Blasio has been a constant critic of Trump and his administration. He made his opposition a centerpiece of his re-election campaign this year. On Tuesday he held a rally outside Trump Tower to rail against Republicans' proposed tax cuts.

The mayor's press secretary hasn't responded to Patch's request for comment. But mayoral spokesman Austin Finan said de Blasio's anti-Trump protests and cordial relationship with Kushner "aren't mutually exclusive."

"So far, we’ve seen the president lobby for a myriad of policies that would directly harm New Yorkers," Finan told Politico. "It’s the mayor’s job to give voice to New Yorkers and he’s a strident believer that protest is one of the most effective ways to create change."

Read the full Politico New York story here.

(Lead image: Jared Kushner visits Asia on a White House trip earlier this month. Photo by Thomas Peter-Pool/Getty Images)