Rudy Scandal Update: Dem Defends Giuliani

The Politico's Ben Smith is reporting that former New York Mayor and Republican Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for travel expenses during his tenure as New York Mayor. Politico obtained documents on the brewing scandal via a Freedom of Information Law request.

Giuliani is denying the allegations.

According to the story, Giuliani charged a variety of city agencies, including agencies responsible for regulating loft apartments, aiding the disabled and providing lawyers for indigent defendants, for hundreds of thousands in expenses related to Rudy's travel to the Hamptons. When city auditors questioned the expenses, they were denied information by the mayor's office, citing "security" concerns.

Update: See the response from the Giuliani campaign and from a Democrat who defends Giuliani, plus new allegations, at the end of the story.

The article stresses the link between the Hamptons trips and the Mayor's extra-marital relationship with Judith Nathan, his current wife. In my view, this is an attempt to "sex up" a story which otherwise poses more questions than it answers. Obviously, further investigation is warranted, and if the "sexy" angle gets it the attention it deserves, so be it. The facts around the dissolution of Rudy's second marriage have already had what impact they're going to have, although it can't be comfortable for Mr. Giuliani to have this in the news while he's trying to woo conservative voters in Iowa.

The use of the lofts agency is an uncomfortable reminder of another sex scandal, former N.Y.C. Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and erstwhile O.J. publisher Judith Regan's dalliances at an apartment that was intended for use by weary police and rescue workers at Ground Zero. With Hizzoner currently polling at 12 percent in Iowa, this cannot be welcome news to the Giuliani camp.

Of course, the greater impact of this story remains to be seen. If city officials continue to investigate this, it could be a major hit to Giuliani's status as the national front-runner.

This could be an important story. It's anybody's guess where an investigation of this will lead. I'll keep you posted.

Update: Anderson Cooper asked Giuliani about this story during the Youtube debate, and Giuliani essentially blamed his cops, saying, "They put in their records...I had nothing to do with their records...they were handled appropriately as far as I know."

Update: Democratic New York City Councilman Mike Nelson responded earlier today through a spokesman. Nelson is the senior member of the Committee on Oversight and Investigations, whose chairman, Eric Gioia, has
promised an investigation into Giuliani's involvement in the failure of first responder's radios on 9/11.

He explained that it isn't uncommon for city government to allocate expenses to agencies that still have room in their budgets toward the end of the fiscal year, in order to maximize the use of the city's budget. He said, "This is not a big story, it's a cheap primary trick."

Nelson expressed a similar attitude toward the "Radios" investigation, stating that it's not a new story and that he doesn't believe Giuliani did anything wrong. The largesse of the Motorola contract, he said, was likely intended to cut through the red tape of a bid process that might delay replacement of the faulty radios. When asked why, when the new radios failed, did the city distribute the original faulty radios, he said, "What else are you going to give them? They gotta use something." He further expressed certainty that Rudy must have devised a contingency plan that just wasn't implemented in time.

He concluded by saying that his office had not been contacted by Councilman Eric Gioia about beginning any nvestigation of Giuliani. He said that, "Tough times require tough leadership, and we think Rudy would make an excellent president."

Nelson was also responding to comments I received from filmmaker and outspoken Giuliani critic Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films:

""Despite the best efforts of his handlers, the real Rudy Giuliani keeps rearing his ugly head. We've documented at TheRealRudy.org that as mayor, Rudy was far from the 9/11 hero he's pretending he was. Now we learn that even while he was making sweetheart deals with Motorola that cost firefighters' lives on 9/11, he was stealing funds meant to help the disabled in order to bring his security detail with him on jaunts to the Hamptons to cheat on his wife. What's next? What else does this guy have to hide?"

Brave New Films was mum on the possibility of filming a "Real Rudy" expose' on this matter, but the possibility is intriguing.

I contacted the Hillary Clinton campaign repeatedly for comment, but they have not responded. I called the Giuliani campaign, who issued a statement to me via email. It is noteworthy that they issued this statement after repeated calls throughout the day, and only after they were made aware that I had statements from Robert Greenwald and Mike Nelson. Also noteworthy is that the candidate himself would not go on record with an explanation. Finally, it's interesting that this explanation seems to substantially echo the one offered by Nelson's spokesman.

Understand from your message you were looking for a statement from us on the Politico story. The following statement is from Joe Lhota, former Budget Director and Deputy Mayor:

"To ensure the safety of the Mayor of the City of New York and his family, the NYPD assigned security to them on a 24/7/365 basis. The cost of this security was paid by the NYPD budget. Dating back as far as the Mayor's first term in office, the practice was that when security-related expenses were incurred, they were paid for with an Office of the Mayor credit card. The practice was put into place to ensure timely payment and the monthly credit card bill was paid promptly from the Mayor's Office budget. Such costs were allocated throughout the various divisions within Mayor's office. Sometime there after, but before the end of each fiscal year, the NYPD would reimburse the Office of the Mayor for such expenditures and therefore these divisions were never deprived of any monies."

11/30/2007 - This story has expanded to include allegations that Giuliani billed the city for his lover's driver. See also Denise Williams' coverage of another scandal involving Rudy's alleged ties to terrorists.

Gallery: Political Sex Scandals