Jeanine Pirro lost Giuliani’s support for a fund-raising event, and now faces questions about why she steered A & P business toward the security firm of Giuliani and Bernard Kerik.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani yesterday refused to renew his support for Jeanine Pirro’s scandal-hobbled campaign for attorney general and ducked questions on how his firm received a no-bid contract from A & P at Pirro’s urging.
Giuliani, who last week dropped his support of a much-anticipated fund-raising event for fellow Republican Pirro, was asked during a political appearance in Schaumburg, Ill., if he was still backing Pirro for New York’s top legal job.
“Oh, jeez,” he laughingly responded.
“We’re not here to talk about that today,” he continued – refusing to say anything further.
A spokeswoman for Giuliani, Sunny Mindel, wouldn’t elaborate on his remarks.
Giuliani’s dodge came just hours after The Post disclosed that in 2004, then-Westchester District Attorney Pirro steered a no-bid contact to Bernard Kerik and Giuliani’s security firm. In doing so, they rebuffed protests about the arrangement from one of her aides and from A & P, which was forced to pay for it.
Asked if a contract had been steered to his firm, Giuliani said, “My office is answering those questions. Call my office.”
Mindel said Wednesday that he was not aware that Pirro had personally directed that his firm be hired. Michael Hess, a senior managing director at Giuliani’s firm, said yesterday that he had no knowledge as to how A & P had become a client of the firm.
A & P corporate spokesman Richard DeSanta refused for the second day in a row to return calls seeking comment.
Pirro, meanwhile, insisted during a press conference in Smithtown that there was “absolutely” no impropriety in her having required A & P to hire the Kerik-Giuliani firm to monitor its compliance with the state law barring the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors.
She said the arrangement had been approved as part of a court settlement with A & P, but a source close to case told The Post that was not the case.
“The hiring of the firm was not part of the court record,” the source insisted.
A Pirro spokesman, John Gallagher, was asked for evidence that a court had approved the arrangement but refused to respond to the request.
Pirro also contended that there were “several people who were approached” before she selected the firm, although she provided no details.
Gallagher declined to name the “several people.”
Pirro, who has described Kerik and Giuliani as friends, is being investigated by federal authorities for plotting with Kerik to place a bug in her husband Albert’s boat, because she feared he was cheating.