Todd Maisel/New York Daily News Mayor Bill de Blasio defended his phone call into Findlayter’s arrest. ‘It's very simple. I received a report ... I made an inquiry,’ he said.

A visibly shaken Mayor de Blasio grew red-faced Thursday as he fended off more questions about his late-night call to the NYPD on behalf of a longtime supporter who’d been picked up by police.

Speaking at a press conference about snow conditions at the Office of Emergency Management headquarters, the usually genial de Blasio showed his testier side when the subject of Bishop Orlando Findlayter came up.

“It’s very simple. I received a report ... I made an inquiry,” said de Blasio of his call Monday night to NYPD Deputy Chief Kim Royster to inquire about Findlayter’s status.

“(Royster) came back with an answer that the situation had been settled. And I thought the precinct commander handled it well. That was his choice to make obviously,” the mayor said.

Findlayter, the founder of the New Hope Christian Fellowship Church, was detained by police on outstanding warrants Monday night after cops pulled him over for a routine traffic stop in East Flatbush.

Desiree Navarro for New York Daily News Bishop Orlando Findlayter, who was detained Monday after a routine traffic stop, was released after Mayor de Blasio called the NYPD’s deputy chief, but the mayor claims he didn’t ask for his release.

He was released after de Blasio’s call to Royster. The mayor has said he didn’t ask for cops to let the bishop go.

“By the time I even got an answer a decision had been made,” de Blasio insisted Thursday, in his first comments since the incident occurred.

But critics noted that Findlayter didn’t immediately have to face a judge because of his political connections.

He was a member of de Blasio’s inaugural committee and was invited to give the invocation in the City Council chambers.

Todd Maisel/New York Daily News Mayor Bill de Blasio pictured with Bishop Pastor Orlando Findlayter (center), who was picked up on warrants Monday night, but soon released.

De Blasio said it was his aide Emma Wolfe who first alerted him to Findlayter’s whereabouts.

“This is an unusual situation where a very prominent member of the clergy obviously was experiencing a pretty unusual situation,” he said. “I thought it was appropriate to make an inquiry and I got a response, and that’s the end of the story.”

When a reporter brought up a ticket-fixing scandal within the NYPD that erupted during former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s tenure, de Blasio got snappy.

“I don't even understand the parallel. Ticket fixing is illegal, period. Making an inquiry is perfectly appropriate, ticket fixing is illegal,” he shot back at the reporter.

New York Daily News Mayor Bill de Blasio pictured with Bishop Pastor Orlando Findlayter (center), who was picked up on warrants Monday night, but soon released.

The mayor said he didn’t try to reach out to his Police Commissioner Bill Bratton because he was only in search of details.

“(It) happened to be a matter of literally trying to get information so we called the Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information,” he said, adding that it precinct commander made a “professional decision” to release Findlayter.

Asked if he would do the same again if a similar situation arose, de Blasio didn’t say no.

“I would make my decisions on a case by case basis,” he said

gotis@nydailynews.com