Maya Wiley once defended prison guards accused of brutality, racism

Progressive mayoral candidate Maya Wiley wants to defund the police to help end racial discrimination, but she cut her teeth as a federal prosecutor defending correction officers accused of brutality and racism, according to The Post’s review of her government cases.

Wiley, 57, a former counsel to Mayor de Blasio who also chaired the Civilian Complaint Review Board, told the New York Times last month, “I’ve been a civil rights lawyer and advocate my whole career.” But as a young lawyer, Wiley worked to dismiss civil rights suits against the federal government as an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York between 1994 and 1997.