Bill DeBlasio Argued N.Y. Had First Amendment Duty to Pay Travel Costs for NYPD Security Detail on His Presidential Campaign
A short excerpt from the 33,000-word De Blasio v. N.Y. City Conflict of Interest Board, decided Tuesday by Manhattan judge Shahabuddeen Abid Ally:
Bill DeBlasio … was Mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. In May 2019, Petitioner announced that was he running for President of the United States. Four months later, in September 2019, Petitioner suspended his campaign. [I had completely forgotten that, if I ever noticed in the first place. -EV] During his campaign, Petitioner or members of his immediate family took 31 out-of-state trips on which they were assigned and accompanied by a full-time security detail of officers of the New York City Police Department ….
Shortly before announcing his candidacy, Petitioner consulted [the] New York City Conflict of Interest Board … on whether … the City of New York … could pay all costs associated with providing Petitioner and his immediate family an NYPD security detail during political trips…. [T]he Board opined that while the City could indeed pay the officers’ salaries and overtime, it could not pay the officers’ out-of-City travel-related costs. Payment of those costs by the City, the Board advised, would violate the City’s conflict-of-interest laws, … because it would constitute a prohibited use of City resources for a non-City purpose as well as Petitioner’s use of his official position for his own financial gain or personal advantage.
Contemporaneously with the end of Petitioner’s campaign, the Board requested that the New York City Department of Investigation … investigate whether the City had been paying for Petitioner’s security detail’s campaign-related travel costs. The DOI’s investigation of the matter, which was consolidated with investigations of separate questions involving the pr
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