Mayor Martin J. Walsh today brushed off a new report that indicates that as a union leader, he directly threatened to undermine a developer's permits in Boston's Zoning Board of Appeals if he didn't hire union labor at a Somerville project.

Citing "people with knowledge of the investigation and defense documents" related to a federal grand jury proceeding, the Boston Globe reported today that Walsh, while both a state representative and head of the Boston Building Trades, was heard on a 2012 wiretap telling a high-ranking union official to arrange a phone call to then Mayor Thomas M. Menino about a high-rise AvalonBay Communities wanted to build on Stuart Street that was up for discussion in front of the Boston Zoning Board of Appeals. AvalonBay was also in the process of developing the Assembly Row mall in Somerville and reportedly was under pressure to hire union workers.

Two union leaders who were ZBA members have testified under immunity before a grand jury, but have denied their reported remarks about AvalonBay's Assembly Row project before the board and in conversation with a union leader were efforts to strongarm the company, the report indicates.

In a wiretapped conversation with Anthony Perrone, the then laborers' union Local 22 leader, the Globe quotes Walsh as saying, “Tomorrow, do me a favor and have Lou [Mandarini] call the mayor’s office because AvalonBay is on the docket for 45 Stuart Street. We want him to get it thrown off the docket at the ZBA.”

Mandarini was Local 22's business manager. He denied in documents reviewed by the Globe that he ever called Menino's office.

Walsh again refused to say today whether he's been called to testify before a federal grand jury. He dismissed the Globe story as a rewrite of past reporting on the same subject matter.

"They've rewritten the same story seven times," Walsh said outside a scheduled appearance in South Boston. "I have no idea what's going on. I think I read the same story two months ago, and then I read the story six months ago and I read the story a year ago.

"I've said everything I'm going to say about this," he insisted, adding, "The information I get is what I read in the paper."

Ortiz spokeswoman Christina Sterling declined comment on both the Globe story and the grand jury leak.

In a separate case, Kenneth Brissette, Walsh's director of tourism, sports and entertainment, and Timothy Sullivan, his chief of staff for intergovernmental affairs, are both on leave following their federal indictments in connection with charges they tried to strong-arm the Boston Calling music festival to hire union labor in 2014 by threatening to withhold permits.

Though a trial date has still not been set, Joyce Linehan, the mayor's chief of policy and planning, has already been named in court filings as a witness for the prosecution. Linehan discussed the festival with both men in emails released by City Hall.

Brissette has pleaded not guilty to extortion and conspiracy. Sullivan has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy. They have until Dec. 16 to file motions to dismiss their cases.