Yesterday councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens) was supposed to speak before a grand jury regarding his claims of a sanitation slowdown during last month's Blizzageddon. We say was because snow prevented much of the jury from making it to court and Halloran's appointment was postponed. But that didn't mean he didn't stop pushing his story, instead he went and talked to federal investigators.
While the Post, which has some reason to side with Halloran, reports that he "met with Brooklyn federal investigators and turned over video and photos that could back claims that plow operators were told to slack off during the blizzard because of Sanitation budget cuts," the other papers have no word of such evidence.
In fact, the News instead focused on the fact that the councilman has invoked client-attorney privilege regarding the identity of the workers he claims told him of the slow down ("I will not endanger them in their careers or put them in harm's way," he said) despite the fact that "city ethics rules bar elected officials from doing even unpaid legal work pertaining to city matters."
Finally the Times' take focused on the lack of traction the case is making, quoting Halloran's most recent version of events, in which “a handful” of Sanitation Department supervisors orchestrated the whole thing. “The rank-and-file guys, I don’t think they wanted a slowdown,” he told reporters.
We guess we'll find out more soon enough. Halloran is expected to return to court on Monday.
