NEW YORK — Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio must pay a $475,000 fine for misusing public funds on a police security detail in his failed White House bid, a judge ruled this week, calling the former mayor’s appeal “confusing.” because of “Totally baseless.”
The decision blocks de Blasio’s latest effort delete the large fine In 2023, the city’s ethics committee issued a complaint against him. In his motion to dismiss, de Blasio argued that the board had given him murky guidance on the use of public funds for security purposes and exceeded his authority to impose the fine.
Judge Shahabuddeen Ally roundly rejected those arguments in his 80-page ruling on Monday, saying the mayor was “expressly and specifically” informed the city would not pay security travel costs for the country campaign, but decided to bring his own police detail anyway. .
“(His) position essentially eliminates his agency in the choices he made,” the judge wrote, adding that “the blatant argument that he is somehow not subject to the City’s conflict of interest laws” lacks merit.
The ruling frees de Blasio’s $320,000 security detail during his four-month campaign as he launched his second term as mayor in 2019. He will also have to pay a fine of $5,000 for each of the 31 out-of-state security detail trips, worth €155,000.
The fine was the largest ever issued by the New York City Conflict of Interest Commission, an independent city agency responsible for holding local officials to certain ethical standards.
Carolyn Lisa Miller, the commission’s executive director, said the court’s ruling “speaks for itself.”
An attorney for de Blasio, Andrew G. Celli Jr., declined to comment. De Blasio did not return a text message.
In court filings, de Blasio’s lawyers argued that forcing him to pay the cost of his security detail’s travel expenses violated his 1st Amendment rights, creating an “disproportionate burden” between wealthy candidates and career public officials.
They added that paying the restitution “will not have a significant impact on the NYPD’s budget.”
De Blasio has been sued for misusing his security detail. A month before leaving office in 2021, a report The city’s Department of Investigation found that he treated the officers as a “concierge service,” using them to get his daughter into an apartment and his son into college.
Since leaving office in 2021, de Blasio has worked as a professor at several universities, most recently at the University of Michigan, and given paid lectures in Italy.
