Monday, August 9, 2010

He knows where the bodies are buried

From the Daily News:

John Haggerty is accused of theft, not murder. But he knows where the bodies are buried.

He was intimately involved with the plotting, negotiating and dealmaking that Mayor Bloomberg and his top aides used to keep him in City Hall until 2013.

Convincing a reluctant City Council to extend term limits? Haggerty was there.

Convincing resentful Republicans to put Bloomberg on their ballot even after he left the party? Haggerty was knee-deep.

Convincing the mayor's base to show up on Election Day even though they assumed he'd win easily? Haggerty was all over it.

Haggerty is also accused of siphoning off $1 million of Bloomberg's money last year by setting up a phony poll-watching operation, then using the cash to buy his family home in Forest Hills Gardens.

Settlement talks have failed. There's no hint of a plea deal. And now that a trial seems likely, Haggerty's friends are starting to make noise about just what sort of secrets could get spilled on the stand.

"During the campaign," the indictment says, "Bloomberg authorized certain of his agents... to direct certain expenditures of his personal funds for various purposes."

That means that in addition to calling Bloomberg to testify, prosecutors may have to call those "agents" - such as First Deputy Mayor Patti Harris and former Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey.

Harris, Sheekey and others were on the city payroll, ostensibly working for the taxpayers, while also regularly dropping into Bloomberg's campaign office.

Bloomberg's inner circle was used to juggling roles, after doing the same when he considered running for President and extended term limits.

If they find themselves in the witness box they can expect plenty of questions about how they're authorized to spend the mayor's money, how they spent it in the past - and whether that conflicts with their loyalty to the taxpayers.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is not liberal democrat dictatorship grand?

Anonymous said...

Haggerty?

Anglo-Americans should have banned these savage immigrants 200 years ago.

Anonymous said...

You must not watch a lot of English soccer games.

Anonymous said...

Didn't he also do work for Ulrich

Anonymous said...

The Haggerties have been concocting bizarre conspiracy theories about everyoe else, now it's Bloomberg's turn. In the Haggerty comic book mind, anyone who does not elevate them to royal status must be doing so because of evil machinations. Reality is irrelevant.