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Politico: Giuliani Hid Security Detail Payments for Mistress Visits
It's not much of a mystery why Bernie Kerik and Rudy Giuliani got along so well. They both showed a certain ingenuity when it came to leveraging New York City resources for trysts.
Kerik, of course, had his 9/11 love nest. And Giuliani, well:
As New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, according to previously undisclosed government records.The documents, obtained by Politico under New York’s Freedom of Information Law, show that the mayoral costs had nothing to do with the functions of the little-known city offices that defrayed his tabs, including agencies responsible for regulating loft apartments, aiding the disabled and providing lawyers for indigent defendants.
At the time, the mayor’s office refused to explain the accounting to city auditors, citing “security.”
The Hamptons visits resulted in hotel, gas and other costs for Giuliani’s New York Police Department security detail.
Sure enough, the New York City Loft Board, the Office for People With Disabilities, the Procurement Policy Board, and the Assigned Counsel Administrative Office all proved good hiding places for expenses ($34,000, $10,054, $29,757, and $400,000, respectively) that Giuliani would rather not explain.
But "an unnamed Giuliani aide" gives it a whirl anyway:
A Giuliani aide who would speak only on the condition of anonymity denied that the unorthodox billing practices were aimed at hiding the expenses, citing "accounting" and noting that they were billed to units of the mayor's office, not to outside city agencies.The aide declined to discuss Giuliani's visits to Long Island.
Swing and a miss!
The piece is heaped with priceless details, not the least of which is that Giuliani scheduled haircuts shortly before three of the visits to the Hamptons.
Comments (38)
EdNSted wrote on November 28, 2007 4:15 PM:And to think some people have said Rudy's not qualified to be president of the U.S.
Orwell's Intuition wrote on November 28, 2007 4:22 PM:Will Pat Robertson rescind his support of this philandering, lying, political thug?
Anonymous wrote on November 28, 2007 4:22 PM:So Giuliani used $400,000 allocated to assign counsel to indigent criminal defendants to fund an extramarital affair. That is so classy. Imagine how much fun he can have with the resources of the Federal Government!
jri wrote on November 28, 2007 4:22 PM:Haircuts! He's as bald as I am! 5 bucks tops!
bobh wrote on November 28, 2007 4:35 PM:I hope rudy is their candidate. Why?
Evangelicals will stay home in DROVES and not vote at all.
Go rudy, you dummy!
Anonymous wrote on November 28, 2007 4:35 PM:I carped to anyone who would listen while this was going on --- my tax money at work.
The guy has no scruples. He's a bully with a law degree and is snart enough to be much more frightening than Bush.
BTW, according to Judy's (name at the time) neighbors, she also had a security guard assigned to her in Manhattan.
Between this and Wayne Barrett's column in the "Village Voice", what's keeping this guy viable? America's mayor my a**.
Bill Peterson wrote on November 28, 2007 4:36 PM:Last time I was in Amsterdam, I went to the Prostitution Information Center and got a pricelist for "services". A simple 15minutes with Helga costs less than $50, so it looks like Rudy could have gotten 8,000 "oral services" for the $400,000.
I wonder what he did get ... ?
BP
Tim wrote on November 28, 2007 4:40 PM:Rudy is a crook -
D wrote on November 28, 2007 4:47 PM:lets call it like it is -
and he says he will be responsible for
"protecting" us.
I don't need the same sort of protection
those 3000 poor souls got in new york on
9-11 when Rudy was mayor.
Somebody should look into who paid for Judi Stish Ross Nathan Giuliani's condo in Southampton. From 1995-1999 she was shacked up in the city with a boyfriend - then she meets Giuliani and she suddenly has a condo in the Hamptons?
BlindRobin wrote on November 28, 2007 4:58 PM:Ha Ha !
WT wrote on November 28, 2007 4:59 PM:Didn't the Barrett article in the Voice suggest that Rudy and Judy used the bunker in 7 WTC for trysts and that was a reason he insisted that the bunker be located within walking distance of City Hall?
Raoul Paste wrote on November 28, 2007 5:05 PM:The NY tabloids are running extra editions tonite!
JimBob wrote on November 28, 2007 5:20 PM:Problem with this story is that for many people who care to think about such things (I'm only doing so long enough to write then, then I'm going to go throw up), the idea of RG getting laid a lot plays into the idea of him as a POTENT MAN -- and to a lot of Republicans that matters more than brains or erudition or anything else.
Gary wrote on November 28, 2007 5:43 PM:And here I thought the Politico was good for nothing!
Pete Sikora wrote on November 28, 2007 5:47 PM:Also hilarious: the neighbors of the Mayor and his mistress kept asking them to turn off their car engines. All those black SUVs idling... why were they idling? To pollute the air? To get away fast if Osama Bin Laden popped up pre-9/11? To cover up loud nookie? The mind boggles... it's just hilarious. Ben Smith nails a HUGE story on Rudy - again.
TDB wrote on November 28, 2007 5:51 PM:I feel like TPM sullies itself in a Fox News kind of way with sensationalistic headlines. "Booty Calls"? Come on guys. Josh and Co., your reporting is excellent - there is no need to be juvenile.
jason kennedy wrote on November 28, 2007 6:01 PM:Please, people, please.
We want our public servants to be relaxed and to do a good job, don't we?
Imagine all the awful political fights that rogue testosterone surging around Guiliani's body might have caused.
Surely we should not deny this studmuffin the opporunity to offload his seed and restore himself to a saner level of functioning, one where the sight of a breast-shaped object or the tail-end of every staffer didn't cause hormonal mayhem.
After all, it's not as if Republicans failed to extend the same courtesy to Clinton, is it...
Ha, truly, Rudy makes Clinton look like the Dalai Lama when it comes to flourishing his pork sword.
jason kennedy wrote on November 28, 2007 6:15 PM:The Politico article's comments make great reading.
Doesn't matter what an article is about, these people just can't stop obsessing over the Clintons.
They have no principles, only obsessions.
dmbeaster wrote on November 28, 2007 6:16 PM:And here I thought the Politico was good for nothing!
More likely its just one GOP organ affiliated with one candidate trashing a non-affiliated candidate. What will FOX say now about their hero Rudy?
"Booty Calls"? Come on guys. Josh and Co., your reporting is excellent - there is no need to be juvenile.
Best to call sleaze exactly what it is -- nothing juvenile about that.
a New Yorker wrote on November 28, 2007 6:20 PM:I hope it is not lost on everyone that NYC budgets routinely roll over to the next year, meaning that the $400,000 spent out of the Assigned Counsel Administrative Office was actually taken away; it wasn't going to just "disappear" at the end of the year. (I concede that the council may have, unknowingly, authorized extra money in the ACAO budget which essentially made up for the embezzlement.)
bill eff wrote on November 28, 2007 6:52 PM:Then note that NYC Legal Aid went bankrupt around the same time. Was there a connection?
well guess what not a single comment on any of the networks nightly news! surprise? not me- anyone?
Dave Bowman wrote on November 28, 2007 6:56 PM:Rudy has just responded to these charges--quote: 9/11! 9/11! 9/11!
Steve Watson wrote on November 28, 2007 7:03 PM:Uh-Oh. Rudy is freakin' toast. He's like an autocratic Republican version of Bill Clinton. Smart & competent, but utterly pathetic. No presidency for Rudy! :(
DallasNE wrote on November 28, 2007 7:07 PM:So the tab to New Yorkers for Rudy's extra-marital affair was just over a half-million dollars. That bought a whole lot more than condoms. Mayor Bloomberg should demand that Rudy repay New York City for these strickly private expenses.
Xenos wrote on November 28, 2007 7:40 PM:"How you get a rude and a reckless?
Don't you be so crude and a feckless
You been drinking brew for breakfast
Rudie can't fail!"
Sorry, can't help myself. The song, and the news, causing waves of ill-mannered joy.
eli wrote on November 28, 2007 7:47 PM:This is just a blip in his campaign. Anyone on the GOP side who was planning to vote for him in the primaries either knew already, or won't care. His serial infidelities were no secret. The important thing is, he'll keep us SAFE from all the terrorists hiding under the bed.
Chris Edelson wrote on November 28, 2007 8:04 PM:why was Giuliani hiding the payments? why was he billing random agencies? I feel like maybe there is more to the story...hopefully someone will pursue this further
Dee Illuminati wrote on November 28, 2007 8:09 PM:Amazing.. Giuliani is such a jerk. The Sunday talk shows had a poll where 4% of Iowans thought he was honest.
And the debate (youtube) is starting, and he looks criminal.
eli wrote on November 28, 2007 8:35 PM:Remember, pre-9/11, Rudy had no national ambitions. No multimillion dollar "security consulting" gig to look forward to. He was just a philandering soon-to-be ex-mayor, trying to hide his goomah from his wife and the city comptroller. No deep, dark secrets here. Just run-of-the-mill sleaze.
midwestblue wrote on November 28, 2007 9:50 PM:It saddens me to see TPM become almost exclusively political. No offense, but people can get political news anywhere.
danger wrote on November 29, 2007 9:08 AM:midwestblue wrote on November 28, 2007 9:50 PM:
It saddens me to see TPM become almost exclusively political. No offense, but people can get political news anywhere.
Yeah, cause bilking the taxpayer to go impress his wife while not touching any of his personal accounts to do so is in no way a reflection upon his character as a leader or a human being. It's a sensationalized political attack!!! Move along, nothing to see here!!!
ihatebeets wrote on November 29, 2007 9:44 AM:Of one thing you can be assured...if Rudy is the Republican nominee, he will never, ever state he will restore honesty and dignity to the White House.
Tom in Dallas wrote on November 29, 2007 9:46 AM:Does the $400 grand taken from the Public Defenders' budget represent a double screwing? Ms. Nathen and indigent defendants?
Tom in Dallas wrote on November 29, 2007 9:49 AM:Does the $400 grand taken from the Public Defenders' budget represent a double screwing? Ms. Nathan and indigent defendants?
buckheaddad wrote on November 29, 2007 12:10 PM:And I thought that GEORGIA politics were hysterical . . . . you Yankees have written the book on FOOLISHMENT IN GOVERNMENT.
myrna wrote on November 29, 2007 3:19 PM:Rudy: a former federal prosecutor and a law-and order mayor who claims he cleaned up New York city, clearly has no respect for the law as it applies to himself and his friends. What can I say? Giuliani and Kerik-prefect together!
Mooser wrote on November 29, 2007 5:55 PM:For a real thrill, just remember all the stuff we've been reading about Giuliani, Romney, and the rest of the Repug candidates.
When the time comes, you can compare the presentation of the republican candidate on the MSM with what you read. You will be amazed!
He'll be a combo plate of Jesus, Reagan and Eisenhower.
And all the stupid and bizarre things they do and say now will be flushed.
You can do anything if you have the MSM acting as your publicity agency. And for free, yet.
Anonymous wrote on November 30, 2007 11:11 AM:Wonder if he picked up anything for the weekend on those trips to the barber's?