NEW YORK A judge this week dismissed former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s legal argument as confusing and completely unfounded, ruling that he must pay a $475,000 fine for abusing public funds on a police protection detail during his unsuccessful White House quest.
The ruling prevents de Blasio’s most recent attempt to get the significant fine imposed on him by the city’s ethics board in 2023 removed. De Blasio claimed in his application for dismissal that the board had given him unclear instructions regarding the use of public monies for security and had then gone beyond its power in levying the punishment.
In an 80-page decision released Monday, Judge Shahabuddeen Ally categorically rejected those arguments, concluding that the mayor chose to bring his police detail despite being expressly and clearly instructed that the city would not cover the costs of security travel for the cross-country campaign.
The judge ruled that “his position essentially eliminates his own agency in the choices he made,” and that the extraordinary argument that he is somehow exempt from the City’s conflicts-of-interest rules was without validity.
As a result of the verdict, de Blasio will be responsible for $320,000 in airline and other travel expenses that his security detail incurred during the four-month campaign, which he started in 2019 while running for mayor for the second time. Additionally, he will be fined $5,000 for each of the 31 out-of-state excursions made by the security detail, totaling $155,000.
New York’s Conflicts of Interest Board, an independent city organization charged with keeping local politicians to specific ethical standards, imposed the biggest penalties ever.
Carolyn According to board executive director Lisa Miller, the judge’s decision is self-evident.
Andrew G. Celli Jr., de Blasio’s lawyer, declined to comment. A SMS message was not answered by De Blasio.
De Blasio’s lawyers contended in the court filing that making him pay for the travel expenses of his security detail was an infringement on his First Amendment rights and placed an unfair burden on career public workers and affluent candidates.
They further stated that there would be no discernible impact on the NYPD budget from making the refund.
De Blasio has been accused of abusing his security detail in the past. According to a study by the city’s Department of Investigation, months before he resigned in 2021, he used the police as a concierge service, utilizing them to transport his son to college and relocate his daughter into an apartment.
Since leaving office in 2021, de Blasio has given paid talks in Italy and served as a lecturer at several universities, most recently the University of Michigan.
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