Via Newsday:
The Rev. Al Sharpton has never had a friend in the New York City mayor’s office like Bill de Blasio.
The Harlem-based preacher is enjoying his closest access to the seat of power since he came of age as an activist and antagonist of city officials during the Ed Koch era.
“There’s always an open line of communication. Always,” said Rachel Noerdlinger, a top Sharpton aide for 14 years who was hired by de Blasio in January as first lady Chirlane McCray’s chief of staff. “We didn’t have that before: access . . . I know there hasn’t been a thing that we have asked Mayor de Blasio to do that he hasn’t done.” […]
And Sharpton and de Blasio have each other’s backs. The mayor last week praised Sharpton as a good citizen amid new disclosures over his FBI informant past. Sharpton in February ridiculed attacks on the mayor for calling the NYPD about the arrest of Bishop Orlando Findlayter, a de Blasio supporter whom police held after a traffic stop on warrants for not appearing in court on a civil disobedience charge.