Firenze Sage: D.A. Janet DiFore, welfare cheat

Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore pulled strings to get her familyâ€s live-in housekeeper food stamps, cash assistance and Medicaid benefits, according to an internal report from the countyâ€s Department of Social Services.

For the past year, Social Services has been probing how DiFioreâ€s housekeeper was suddenly approved for welfare benefits after having been previously denied three times for inconsistencies in her applications, The Post has learned.

“Okay we got to the bottom of this case. This was a political favor for Janet DiFioreâ€s maid. It is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE,” Dhyalma Vazquez, a county anti-fraud investigator, wrote in an internal e-mail.

Vazquez, who also chairs the Yonkers Independence Party, alleged in the e-mail to Department of Social Services Commissioner Kevin McGuire that DiFioreâ€s housekeeper, Jamaican immigrant Marina Buchanan, should never have received benefits.

In a series of e-mails from June and July of last year, Vazquez claimed that DiFiore, a Republican-turned- Democrat, had Buchananâ€s case file improperly re-opened after the Yonkers branch office denied benefits.

Buchanan, 58, was paid $200 a week in cash by DiFiore and got $315 a month in Social Security disability benefits, according to documents obtained by the Post.

_______________

Food stamps, Medicaid, cash and social security disability aided and abetted by the chief law officer of the county. Quick, raise taxes! JAJ48@aol.com