City Council ejects Brooklyn lawmaker Chaim Deutsch after guilty plea
Convicted lawmaker Chaim Deutsch was expelled from the City Council Tuesday by Speaker Corey Johnson, just days after he pleaded guilty to federal charges of cheating on his taxes.
“Based on our review of the charging document and Mr. Chaim
Deutsch’s plea agreement, the Council has concluded that the office of the 48th
Council District has been vacated under the operation of law,” said Johnson, in
a terse statement released in the evening.
“Mr. Deutsch confessed to a crime and violated his oath of
office,” Johnson continued. “He is no longer a member of the City Council.”
The conservative Democrat stunned the Council and City Hall
last week when he confessed to evading more than $82,000 in property tax
between 2013 and 2015 — and then declared he would not resign in spite of the
plea deal.
Johnson said Deutsch’s actions “betrayed the public trust”
and demanded his resignation — a call that Mayor Bill de Blasio later joined.
The charges originated from a joint probe by the city
Department of Investigation, the federal IRS and federal prosecutors in
Manhattan.
Deutsch would have been forced to leave office at the end of
the year under the city’s term-limits law.
His district covers a swath of southern Brooklyn, including
portions of Gravesend, Homecrest, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach.
A spokeswoman for the Council said the seat will remain
empty until a replacement is elected in November.



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