Oops:
New questions were raised today about Rudy Giuliani’s explanation for submitting police security expenses to obscure city agencies while he was mayor of New York and carried on a secret affair with his mistress, who also was given use of a police driver and city car.
Giuliani said Thursday the unusual billing practice was not intended to hide anything but instead to speed payment of American Express credit card bills.
But the current New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said today he knew of no problems with the delay of payments before Giuliani was mayor, when Kelly served under Mayor David Dinkins, or since.
“I don’t recall anybody, any statements about delay,” Kelly told reporters.
Daily Kos summarizes Giuliani’s excuses:
“It’s not true.”We definitely know it’s true.
“It’s SOP for the mayor’s office.”The police commissioner would be in a position to know how it’s supposed to work, given he’s held the position for a total of nearly eight years.
“We were making life easier for the NYPD.”Again, no other mayor in recent history has felt the need to aid the NYPD in billing practices.“It’s a hit job.” Well, ok, maybe he has that one, at least in terms of timing. But that’s hardly the point, and I don’t think it’s going to provide a particularly compelling reason for GOP primary voters to overlook all the rest.
As if that’s not enough, there’s also this:
The revelations continue in the case of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the security detail for Judith Nathan, his one-time mistress who is now his wife.
Did Nathan misuse the city police detail that Giuliani assigned to protect her?
…
Six years later, presidential candidate Giuliani is facing questions about that security. A source involved with the mayor’s operations at the time tells CBS 2 HD that Nathan took flagrant advantage of that police car and driver.
The source says Nathan forced police to chauffeur her friends and family around the city — even when she wasn’t in the car.
Furthermore, “Nathan’s detail was approved by the NYPD after a stranger made an unspecified threat to her. The commissioner at the time was Bernard Kerik, who was recently indicted on tax fraud charges in an unrelated matter.”
The Bernard Kerik? Why yes.
I fear for Giuliani that this thing isn’t going away. His staff has made it virtually impossible for reporters to approach him right now, but they can’t keep that up for ever.
No, Giuliani’s going to suffer.
More at Memeorandum.
No…this isn’t going away, and it shouldn’t. Nathan was reported to have received her own security detail, 12×7.. costing taxpayers over $200,000. Rudy, so far, is refusing to answer any questions about this, saying he already talked about the matter. Soon his thugs will be roughing up reporters who press him on the issue .. as his campaign implodes.
I love the line about “unspecified threats”, I’m sure nothing is documented on the threat and we should just accept the fact she was threatened.
I don’t understand something here. In the spring of 2000 Guiliani’s sexual escapades and soon to be ex-wife Donna Hanover’s proposed role in the Vagina Monologues blew up in his face and killed his chances of successfully running for the senate against Hillary. Suddenly he was not only despised by most people in NYC his conservative cred was shot upstate. Then he was diagnosed with prostate cancer which gave him a convenient out. That all happened by the end of May 2000.
So in June 2000 Guiliani prepaid $54,000 AMEX and billed it to the New York City Loft Board and other backwater agencies. Then sometime in 2001 he prepays another $400,000 knowing full well he’s term limited as mayor and will be out by the beginning of 2002. Remember it wasn’t until after 9/11 that he tried to circumvent the law to remain in power for awhile longer.
What I don’t get is why with well less than a year in office left and the city comptroller already barking up his tree about it he decided he needed a prepaid travel kitty 8 times the size he copped the year before. He wasn’t traveling around the state or country running for another office with his entourage in 2001. Did he have another 3 or 4 mistresses who needed taxi service?
Mark.. maybe by pre-paying the AMEX, he earned “points” that would allow him more freedom to fly under the radar. It may be more difficult to track expenses (flights and travel expenses) with the virtual money he received by American Express.