The million dollar deadbeat

THE CITY 

 As he hints at running for governor, lame duck mayor Bill de Blasio has racked up nearly $1 million in debts to lawyers, campaign consultants and taxpayers that records indicate he currently can’t pay.

The mayor owes one of the city’s biggest lobbyist law firms upwards of $435,000. On Thursday, the city’s Department of Investigation commissioner informed him he must reimburse taxpayers nearly $320,000 for his use of an NYPD securing detail during his failed 2019 cross-country presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, the latest filings for his various campaign and political action committees reveal he’s got more than $182,500 in outstanding campaign debts — and only about $11,800 cash on hand.

Between all of this, he owes upwards of $929,000, THE CITY found.

Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for de Blasio, declined to respond to nearly all of THE CITY’s questions, stating only that he was awaiting his appeal on NYPD reimbursement.

“Once that decision is made, the mayor will of course proceed accordingly,” she wrote.

But Filson would not discuss his modest cash reserve or any of his debts, including his biggest unpaid bill: the $435,000 he owes Kramer Levin & Naftalis — a firm that regularly lobbies City Hall on behalf of real estate developers seeking favors from the mayor’s administration such as zoning changes and city permits.

Between 2015 and 2017, the firm represented de Blasio personally during multiple investigations of his fundraising tactics. As of Tuesday, he had yet to pay a dime of his long-outstanding bill. And at least for the moment, the firm — which has sued other clients for non-payment — has given the mayor a pass.

De Blasio hired Kramer Levin in 2015 after he began getting inquiries from law enforcement and ethics entities regarding his fundraising tactics. The firm then represented him for two years. By the time its services were no longer needed in 2017, Kramer Levin had billed him for some $300,000.

But he likely owes even more due to interest on the initial bill accumulating over the last four years.

According to court papers the firm has filed accusing other clients of non-payment, Kramer Levin starts charging interest after 30 days of missed payment. The papers state that their protocol is to charge a per annum rate of 9%, which would bring de Blasio’s unpaid bill up to $435,000.

In the last year, Kramer Levin has filed lawsuits against a Diamond District dealer for $1.2 million in allegedly unpaid bills, and two hotel developers for $4.7 million. Both suits are pending.

As of last week, the law firm had taken no such action against de Blasio, even though the bills he owes are now overdue by four years.

Tiffany Caban has her own machine to help with the recount

THE CITY

Tiffany Cabán has marshalled a volunteer army of attorneys to fight for votes in the Queens district attorney Democratic primary recount.

The insurgent candidate has actively recruited helpers to monitor the tallying of some 91,000 votes. 

The process officially began earlier this week at a Board of Elections voting machine facility in Middle Village after a paper ballot count left Borough President Melinda Katz holding a razor-thin lead of 16 — triggering a full recount.

The Cabán campaign on Thursday said about 165 lawyers have enrolled pro bono to aid the ballot review. That’s on top of more than 200 volunteers charged with providing administrative support.

Meanwhile, Katz bolstered her legal team by hiring top election lawyer Martin Connor, a former Brooklyn state senator.

“I’m joining their legal team, but 99 other people aren’t,” Connor said, taking a shot at Cabán’s swelling volunteer ranks.

Experts noted the size of Cabán’s volunteer legal squad is unusual.

“I can see having shifts of watchers,” said Sarah Steiner, a former chair of the Election Law Committee for the New York City Bar Association. “But it’s the having that many that is impressive. I’ve never heard of that many volunteer lawyers for a recount… You’d normally be lucky to get a single volunteer lawyer.”

Steiner said the volunteers could come in handy with counting sessions as long as 12 hours a day, giving the lead campaign lawyers a chance to take breaks and rest their eyes

.“In that position, they can be very helpful,” she said of the volunteers. “They are getting a crash course on the short list of legal objections and how to spot them. They don’t need to know any other election law.”

Queens D.A. recount comes at a price for Katz and Caban

THE CITY

With the recount process set to begin Tuesday in the tense Tiffany Cabán-Melinda Katz Democratic primary battle for Queens district attorney, both campaigns are tallying more than just votes.

Insurgent candidate Cabán, with about $35,000 left to spend, is invoking the electoral stalemate in fundraising pitches. Recent emails ask supporters for contributions to ensure a fair recount against a “party machine that has ruled local politics and suppressed democracy for decades.”

Meanwhile, Queens Democratic Party stalwart and Borough President Katz has about $332,000 on hand. But that’s offset by nearly $360,000 in outstanding bills, the bulk of which she owes to consulting firm Red Horse Strategies, records show.

Katz attorneys Michael Reich and Frank Bolz are volunteering their services, said Matthew Rey, a campaign spokesperson. He added that the campaign is now “just starting to raise money” for the recount and general election.

Prominent election attorney Jerry Goldfeder and Renée Paradis, Bernie Sanders’ former voter protection director, are on Cabán’s payroll.

Katz, who initially appeared to have lost the crowded June 25 primary race to Cabán by 1,199 votes, pulled ahead by a mere 16 last week after a count of paper ballots.

The thin margin triggered a full recount of some 91,000 votes, which is expected to take at least a week — and every day will cost the campaigns. Both candidates have already spent upwards of $450,000 each in the past month, campaign disclosure forms filed last week show.

Sarah Steiner, an election lawyer and a former chair of the New York City Bar election law committee, noted there are “almost never recounts this big.”

“Recounts are usually in a single district,” Steiner said. “Usually, they’re in the smaller races. By sheer scale of larger races, usually the gaps between voters exceed the half of one percent in a recount.”

Just before the recount begins, attorneys for Cabán and Katz are scheduled to appear in state Supreme Court. Judge Jeremy Weinstein is expected to rule on whether 114 affidavit ballots with missing information should be validated and counted.

Despite recent accusations by the Katz campaign that Cabán’s team was cherrypicking affidavits favorable to her and effectively suppressing votes, both sides agree that every valid ballot should be counted.

“More than 100 affidavit ballots from registered and eligible Democrats were wrongly invalidated by the [city Board of Elections] — and we will be in court Tuesday morning to make sure these voters are not disenfranchised,” said Monica Klein, a Cabán spokesperson.

Reminds me of a Warren Zevon song. Send lawyers, votes and money

The Kings County consiglieres

NY Daily News

Brooklyn lawyers who decide who can get the crucial Democratic ballot line to run for prized judicial seats are getting jobs as legal guardians and referees from the very judges they’re charged with reviewing — and their law firms are appearing before those same judges in active cases.

Of the 25 attorneys listed as serving on the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s judicial screening panel in 2019, at least five have been given jobs as court-appointed lawyers by the judges they’re tasked with reviewing, the Daily News has learned.

Judicial screening panel members Helene Blank, Mark Longo, Betty Lugo, Melissa Bonaldes and Steven Finkelstein all took work in the last year from judges they’ve reviewed or could review in the future, an analysis of state court records shows.

Alex Camarda, a senior policy analyst at the good-government group Reinvent Albany, described that dynamic as problematic.

 “That certainly creates the perception of a conflict of interest,” he said. “The public should have confidence that judges are being selected on the merits rather than their position on cases involving party officials.”

Since 2018, Finkelstein has received 20 court-appointed referee assignments from Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Mark Partnow and six from Judge Lawrence Knipel, court records show.

From 2008 to the present, Finkelstein has raked in at least $271,000 from those and similar appointments, records show. He joined the panel in 2016.

Veteran lawyer Martin Edelman has served as the judicial panel’s chairman since 2004. He noted that several bar associations appoint its members and about one-third of the panel’s members are selected by Democratic Party district leaders.

Edelman, the former president of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, said since state Supreme Court judges serve 14-year terms, members of the panel usually only review them once.

“The idea that we get to see the same judge year after year is simply not the case,” he said, arguing that if judges were trying to sway attorneys through doling out appointments, they would have to influence more than five lawyers to secure a majority of votes on the panel.

The panel’s judicial screenings take place the same year judges run for election or re-election. Partnow was re-elected to serve in Brooklyn Supreme Court in 2016, the same year Finkelstein joined the panel. Judge Noach Dear was elected in 2015, and Knipel was re-elected in 2012.

In the last two years, the three judges have directed 28 referee appointments to Lugo, 44 to Longo and 30 to Blank, records show. Blank and Longo have both served on the panel since around 2005, about 14 years, according to Edelman.

Lugo, who’s running for Queens district attorney, served on it in 2015 and 2017. She said she’s not serving on the panel this year, despite the fact that she’s listed on its roster. She said she’s “almost positive” she didn’t review Dear or Partnow as a member of the panel.

 Longo, an ethics lawyer and former president of the Brooklyn Bar Association, acknowledged he could see how observers might perceive the potential for a conflict, but said, “In this situation, it’s not the case.”

It's all so convenient

From the NY Post:

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $300,000 debt to his outside law firm is starting to cast a huge shadow over his staff’s decisions.

As The Post reports Tuesday, opponents of plans to expand the Frick Museum have gone to court, claiming in part that the Frick’s use of the firm — Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel — to represent it before the city creates a conflict of interest.

They’re right: Frick hired Kramer Levin to push its plans before the Board of Standards and Appeals and the Landmarks Preservation Commission. But the mayor chooses their members, and they’re all surely aware that he owes the firm 300 grand.

The BSA will also decide Tuesday whether to OK a 64-story East Side apartment tower. Who’s repping its developer, Jonathan Kalikow? Yep: Kramer Levin.

The firm reportedly lobbied two key mayoral aides, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen and City Planning Commissioner Marisa Lago, to let the building reach its planned 64-story height — and the planning commission obliged.

The City Council later nixed that decision, but the BSA will now decide whether enough of the tower was built by then to shield it from the council’s action.

Even if de Blasio hasn’t tried to pay off his debt with political favors, his debt creates an appearance that the firm will be treated well by the city. What company lets a client not pay a bill (or even work out a payment plan, as de Blasio has yet to do) unless it’s getting something in return?

Bill sticking taxpayers with quite a tab

From the Daily News:

Add another $2.6 million to the city budget — to cover Mayor de Blasio’s legal bills.

The city quietly posted notice of a proposed $2.6 million contract between the Law Department and Kramer Levin Naftalis and Frankel LLP — Hizzoner’s law firm — in the City Record Friday.

The contract is “to provide Legal Services to the mayor in connection with an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and related work” from 2016 to 2018.

The firm represented de Blasio and others at City Hall in a series of investigations into his dealing with fund-raisers — including Harendra Singh, the businessman who pleaded guilty to bribing the mayor. The mayor and his staff were not charged or convicted of any crimes during the year-long probes — but racked up quite a legal bill.

And the taxpayer-funded tab is expected to keep climbing.

“No,” spokesman Eric Phillips said when asked if the $2.6 million was the full legal bill to the city. “When there is a final, complete amount we will release that figure.”

Cy stops taking money from de Blasio's lawyers

From the Daily News:

By the time Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. met with the lawyer representing Mayor de Blasio in his year-old campaign finance probe of Hizzoner, the attorney’s firm and its partners had donated $70,000 to the top prosecutor.

But unlike Vance’s decision to return the donation of a lawyer representing Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. to avoid a conflict of interest, the DA kept the contributions from Kramer Levin Naftalis, the firm representing the mayor.

These donations by a law firm handling one of the DA’s most high-profile cases are yet another example of potential conflicts of interest that have dogged the DA in the last two weeks — scrutiny that prompted Vance to announce Sunday that he was suspending fund-raising.

Lawyers telling illegals to stay at Rikers

From the NY Post:

Federal agents trying to deport illegal-immigrant criminals are hitting a new roadblock in New York City — crafty defense lawyers who will put their clients in jail to keep them in the country, The Post has learned.

A Legal Aid lawyer took the extreme measure in The Bronx Thursday, when she claimed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was waiting for her client and begged a judge to lock up the suspect.
The rookie judge — a Mayor de Blasio appointee — complied, setting $3,000 bail even though the defendant had been free for the six months since his arrest.

“I can’t believe this — every day Legal Aid is asking for no bail” for their clients, one insider told The Post.

“And now they’re asking for bail because even going to Rikers is better than being deported.”

Lawyers are also advising clients not to post even the lowest of bails so that they’ll go to Rikers Island rather than into the waiting arms of ICE agents, sources said.

DeBlasio skates after blaming lawyer

From DNA Info:

Mayor Bill de Blasio broke state law when he and his subordinates steered money towards Democratic state senate campaigns — but he can't be charged with a crime because his lawyer said it was OK, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

"After an extensive investigation, notwithstanding the [Board of Elections'] view that the conduct here may have violated the Election Law, this office has determined that the parties involved cannot be appropriately prosecuted, given their reliance on the advice of counsel," DA Cyrus Vance.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan also concluded an investigation into the mayor's fundraising and determined on Thursday that no criminal charges would be brought.

Well that pretty much ends our chances of not having the Dope from Park Slope around for another 4 years. Paul Massey spoke with the Tribune recently, but he's running as a Republican in a Democratic town.

De Blasio gets a concession from Preet

From the NY Times:

Mayor Bill de Blasio will probably be on familiar ground when he is questioned by federal prosecutors and F.B.I. agents in New York as part of a sweeping criminal investigation into his campaign fund-raising.

It was unclear when exactly the interview would take place, but it was expected to be conducted in a conference room at offices of Mr. de Blasio’s lawyer’s firm in Midtown Manhattan, people with knowledge of the matter have said, not in the offices of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan. It was expected that the interview would last about four hours, the people said.

The parameters of the session took shape after extensive negotiations between prosecutors and the mayor’s lawyer, Barry H. Berke, the people said, and it was possible that some details could change.

It is unusual for federal prosecutors to question a subject of a criminal investigation in the offices of the subject’s lawyer. Such sessions, which can become contentious, are almost always conducted in the prosecutor’s offices. It was unclear why the federal prosecutors agreed to hold the meeting at the Kramer Levin offices.

Let's hope it's because the case against him is so good that it doesn't matter where the inquiry is held. In the meantime, Emma Wolfe is absent and a lot of people at City Hall are shitting a brick.

Civics to de Blasio: Pay for your own lawyers!

From the Queens Chronicle:

Although the city’s paying for the lawyers is legal, civic activists in the borough say that the embattled mayor — who has personally hired a lawyer paid in campaign funds to represent himself— should not be relying on public funds to pay for the attorneys.

“It’s another example of the mayor wasting taxpayer money,” Juniper Park Civic Association President Bob Holden told the Chronicle. “He’s done it on so many other issues. It really seems almost unethical.”

Queens Civic Congress Executive Vice President Richard Hellenbrecht recalled another scandal-tarnished lawmaker who used public funds on attorneys while he was being probed.

“Look at Chris Christie over in New Jersey, who spent a couple of million dollars in taxpayer money fighting the Bridgegate situation,” he said. Christie, however, had taxpayers foot the bill for his own criminal defense lawyer, unlike de Blasio.

“I think that money should go for things the city needs,” Community Board 8 Chairwoman Martha Taylor, who is also a member of the Jamaica Estates Association, said. She added that the money could go toward “improvement or maintenance” work.

It is possible that the public’s footing the bills in situations like the de Blasio administration’s could be banned eventually. State Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) said he would “look into” legislation prohibiting the practice.

The Queens lawmaker, who will not re-endorse de Blasio for re-election, has heard complaints from constituents not happy about public dollars going to pricey attorneys.

Hefty bill for de Blasio defense

From the NY Times:

The bill for defending Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city officials in state and federal criminal investigations into fund-raising practices has grown, with six city contracts for outside law firms now totaling more than $11.6 million.

The contracts, filed with the city comptroller’s office and obtained by The New York Times through a request under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, provide the bare minimum of detail as to their purpose other than representing city employees in possible grand jury hearings related to what the Law Department calls, in its paperwork, the “John Doe Investigation.”

Taken together, the contracts contain a constellation of white-collar criminal defense and trial lawyers from law firms big and small, as well as the maximum they can bill in the city’s defense: Debevoise & Plimpton, $10 million; Carter Ledyard & Millburn, $750,000; Walden Macht & Haran, $350,000; Lankler Siffert & Wohl, $250,000; Cunningham Levy Muse, $200,000; and Paul B. Bergman, P.C., $99,000.

Lawyers from the firms, all of which declined to comment on the contracts, are tasked with preparing witnesses who may be subpoenaed or asked to give testimony to a grand jury. State and federal grand juries have begun hearing evidence from prosecutors, according to people familiar with the matter.

$10M lawyer fees for BdB defense

From the NY Times:

Inside New York City’s Law Department, the case is named Matter No. 2016-013018. It goes by an even more mysterious title in the city’s $10 million contract with outside criminal defense lawyers: John Doe Investigation.

But for New Yorkers, the matter is better known as the federal inquiry into Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, and his aides, one that is said to focus on whether they traded favorable government actions for political contributions.

Last week, the de Blasio administration quietly filed with the city’s comptroller its contract with a law firm, Debevoise & Plimpton, that has for months been acting as outside counsel for the mayor and his aides. The contract, obtained by The New York Times through a request under the state Freedom of Information Law, offers the most detailed look yet at the cost of defending actions that the mayor has insisted were appropriate and legal.

The Law Department, which arranged for the legal services through negotiation as opposed to a competitive bid process, described in concise terms its need for a firm “with expertise in criminal defense law to provide legal services in support of the John Doe Investigation and any related litigation.”

The department checked several boxes saying it required a contractor to “obtain special expertise” not available at the agency, “provide services not needed on a long-term basis,” “accomplish work within a limited amount of time” and “avoid a conflict of interest.” The city’s corporation counsel, who oversees the department, waived a requirement for a public hearing on the contract, the documents show, on the ground that a hearing could “disclose litigation strategy.”

The de Blasio administration, prompted by required budgetary reports, has in recent days offered a limited accounting of its spending on outside lawyers: $6.5 million through the end of the year for overlapping investigations of the mayor, said Eric F. Phillips, Mr. de Blasio’s spokesman.

That amount includes $400,000 for lawyers at Carter Ledyard & Milburn, who have helped defend the city in state and local inquiries — including one by the comptroller — into the sale in February of Rivington House, a former nursing home in Manhattan whose deed restricted use of the property to nonprofit residential health care. Mr. Phillips declined to comment on whether the firm continued to work for the city on that matter.

Mr. de Blasio, asked at a news conference on Friday about the costs, said: “We’ve been asked to provide information; we’ve been very, very cooperative, and as many times as the investigators want to talk to members of the administration, of course they will have that opportunity. But each time requires preparation and representation. That’s why.”

A Law Department spokesman declined to reply to a list of questions about the contract.

Bill blew a load of taxpayer cash defending himself

From the Wall Street Journal:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has spent at least $5.4 million in taxpayer money on lawyers related to state and federal investigations into his fundraising activities, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Work continues into several of the investigations, and the fees to local law firms are likely to climb further, this person said. The current tally represents fees through early October, the person said.

Investigators are looking at whether Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, exchanged government actions for donations, according to people familiar with the matter. Several of the mayor’s closest allies have received subpoenas as part of the investigation.

Neither the mayor nor his allies have been accused of wrongdoing, and Mr. de Blasio has said he and his staff have followed all laws.

Most of the legal fees were paid to Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, a white-collar law firm representing the mayor’s office and city officials involved in the investigations. The fees covered reviewing and producing documents for prosecutors and preparing city employees for interviews, this person said.

Progress Queens has more.

Civic group may file slander suit against BdB administration

From the Times Ledger:

The Juniper Park Civic Association is threatening to sue the de Blasio administration for slander by one of its spokeswomen, according to its president, Bob Holden. After city Comptroller Scott Stringer was invited to Middle Village last week speak to a town hall meeting addressing concerns with the city housing single men at the Holiday Inn Express, Aja Worthy-Davis released a statement saying, “Scott Stringer is courting a group advocating for kicking women and toddlers onto the street, using White Lives Matter as their protest song. He should be ashamed.”

The civic group hired attorneys who fired off a letter to City Hall asking for an apology and a retraction before taking the matter to the next level. They have not heard back, Holden said.

“It’s so slanderous and we’re going to take action on it because it’s so irresponsi­ble,” he said. “Nobody connected with the Juniper Park Civic Association used that term during our rallies, only the mayor’s office heard it. It has no remote connection to our group. We invited Scott Stinger to speak to us. It’s the mayor’s office that made this political and racial. I don’t have words, but it reflects the kind of people this mayor has hired. It is false. It is slanderous.”

In late September, the city produced two videos of the Maspeth group protesting outside a Bellerose hotel, and released them to social media. Holden and Addabbo believe the White Lives Matter chants were edited into one of the videos.

All lawyered up!

From the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio has lawyered up — at the same time that a new report says the feds are looking into whether he used “straw donors” during his 2013 run.

And, in more trouble for the mayor, he’ll have to hire someone else to help spin the bad news.

His press secretary Karen Hinton is leaving the administration after less than a year on the job, City Hall announced late Thursday.

Her sudden resignation — after rampant rumors of inner turmoil in his press shop — was announced hours after Hizzoner issued a news release saying he’d hired lawyer Barry Berke to represent him in the ongoing federal and state probe into his fund-raising.

Berke, of the high-powered firm Kramer Levin, had been representing de Blasio’s 2013 campaign and will now handle that along with the mayor personally.

No city dollars will be used to defend de Blasio.

De Blasio’s campaign will pick up the tab, a move allowed under the state election law.

A scholarship exclusively for native New Yorkers

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Silver disbarred

From Politico:

Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who was convicted on felony corruption charges last year relating to the confluence of his work as a lawyer and a lawmaker, has been disbarred.

Silver automatically lost his Assembly seat upon his conviction, and on Tuesday, a state court revoked his ability to practice law.

Vallone denounces outside income then introduces bill amendment to allow it

You may recall that during Paul Vallone's 2013 campaign, he stated that if elected, he would close his law practice and focus on being a full time legislator. Well, he did close the eastern branch of Vallone and Vallone, but he soon got busted by the media and by your humble blogger for not exactly being out of the lawyer/lobbyist business.

Yesterday, it was revealed that Vallone plans to introduce an amendment to the salary bill that is to be voted on today, which would allow council members to keep their outside income.

Will the real Paul Vallone please stand up?

Lotsa loot for little lawyering

From the Daily News:

State lawmakers are earning big money from law firms — and some of them aren’t doing much lawyering.

Financial disclosure statements made public this month show some legislators earned up to six-figure incomes from law firms without representing a client or stepping foot inside a courtroom.

"I work in an executive capacity with the firm's management committee to develop and advance the firm's strategic goals," State Sen. Michael Nozzolio (R-Seneca County) wrote on his annual statement.

Nozzolio, who earned up to $250,000 from the firm Harris Beach, was one of at least four state lawmakers who reported significant earnings from law firms while admitting they provided no direct services to clients.

Outside income of lawmakers, a thorny issue at the Capitol for years, was put under a new spotlight after the January arrest of then-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), who was accused of pocketing $4 million in bribes and kickbacks that were masked as legal fees.

At least 17 state lawmakers earned $100,000 or more in outside income in 2014, much of it coming from legal work, according to lawmakers’ latest financial statements.

In the wake of Silver’s arrest, lawmakers have begun providing more detail about their outside work but the disclosures still leave out important information, such as the number of hours they spent at their side jobs...