DeBlasio support group investigated for extortion in horse carriage ban

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New York Daily News Exclusive: FBI investigating claim Christine Quinn was threatened for refusing to support carriage horse ban during the mayoral racehttp://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...ne-quinn-refusing-ban-buggy-article-1.1768376http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...ne-quinn-refusing-ban-buggy-article-1.1768376

In the past few weeks, FBI agents have been asking questions about the campaign by the animal rights group NYCLASS to get Christine Quinn to support a ban on the iconic carriages, two sources familiar with the matter told The Daily News. The FBI wants to know if the nature of the threat became extortion. When Quinn refused to support a ban on the carriages, an ad blitz began, and she later lost the race.

Agents were interested in an incident that took place in early 2013, when Quinn was the City Council speaker and the clear front-runner for the Democratic nomination for mayor, the sources said.

A political consultant hired by NYCLASS, Scott Levenson, twice approached aides to Quinn and allegedly told them that if she didn’t back the proposed ban on carriage horses, they would spend big money on a political campaign attacking her.

The aides, Jamie McShane and Ramon Martinez, conveyed the message, but Quinn would not change her position. NYCLASS and its supporters then carried out Levenson’s threat — helping to fund months of negative commercials, robo-calls and mailings that began the downfall of her candidacy.

Levenson is a real estate developer and titularly an "animal rights activist" but seems more interested in acquiring the land on which two stables housing the horses and carriages are built. He even gave an interview after the election, saying Quinn could have avoided the attacks if she had just endorsed an anti-carriage stance. Ironically, the attacks were funded by a group called "New York is Not For Sale." Oh really?

DeBlasio "emerged as the darling of the anti-carriage crowd" when he vowed during the campaign to ban the carriages from New York City streets the first week he was in office.

Does anyone smell anything? It smells like horse manure, but I don't think it came from the horses.