Famous rivals though they may be, Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo are united in soaking taxpayers with their legal bills.
De Blasio is the big “offender”: Count in the extra $1.6 million in fees just uncovered by a Post Freedom of Information request, and it totals $11.6 million the public is out for lawyers representing the mayor and key aides in all those state and federal investigations.
The mayor reportedly will soon plead his case to the feds — with his publicly paid lawyers present, of course.
At least his 2013 campaign is covering the costs for Ross Offinger, the committee’s treasurer. That’s legal since he’s held no City Hall office; the City Charter forbids using campaign cash for the other aides’ lawyers.
That said, the mayor could tap any remaining Campaign for One New York funds for these bills: That wouldn’t even risk an appearance of impropriety, since CONY’s closing down.
Of course, de Blasio insists everyone’s innocent: “No one did anything wrong” and “nothing will come of it,” he told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer on Friday. (But if something does come of it, don’t expect Team de Blasio to rush to reimburse the taxpayers.)
Cuomo, on the other hand, faces no legal impediment to using his campaign funds to cover his own teams’ lawyers’ bills.
Last year, the public paid $643,000 of an approved $950,000 contract with firm Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello to represent Cuomo and his staff in US Attorney Preet Bharara’s corruption investigation.
Cuomo’s campaign kitty reported $21.9 million cash on hand as of Jan. 15.
To be fair, the governor wants state law changed to prevent the use of campaign cash for legal defenses, so he’s arguably being consistent here. On the other hand, he recently vetoed legislation to have the state pay poor defendants’ legal fees.
Snarks aside, there’s no easy answer when public officials face corruption probes. Even having them take donations to special legal-defense funds can raise ethical questions.
The ideal answer, of course, is for politicians to steer clear of conduct that puts them at risk of being caught up in criminal investigations. But New York politics is a long, long way from the ideal.