State Appeals Court Rules De Blasio Must Release Emails

A state appeals court ruled Mayor De Blasio will have to turn over his emails. The decision comes after the New York Post and NY1 took him to court for failing to release emails to a consultant, the head of public relations firm BerlinRosen. de Blasio’s team called him an “agent of the city” to avoid releasing the emails. Under Freedom of Information Law, emails between city employees can be kept private. But the court ruled that the firm was not contracted by the city and thus their communication was not exempt from freedom of information requests. The appellants were ordered to pay the media companies’ legal fees.