Federal prosecutors will not charge New York City mayor in corruption probe

Federal and state prosecutors on Thursday said they would not bring criminal charges against New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio or his aides in connection with two simultaneous investigations into his fundraising practices.

The separate announcements will help clear away a cloud that has hung for months over de Blasio, a first-term Democrat who is running for re-election this fall.

The investigations had been pending for more than a year. U.S. prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been looking into whether the de Blasio administration gave favors to donors who contributed either to his campaign or to a nonprofit organization set up to promote his political agenda.

The Manhattan district attorney's office was separately examining whether de Blasio steered campaign contributions to county committees in order to sidestep New York state campaign finance limits.

During his weekly appearance on a public radio show, de Blasio said he appreciated that both offices had completed a "thorough" effort and had made their conclusions public.

"From the beginning, it is basically a year, I've said consistently we acted appropriately, we acted ethically, we acted lawfully," he said.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney, Jonathan Stempel and Joseph Ax; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Trott)