The city's ethics watchdog said on Thursday that it was hitting former Mayor Bill de Blasio with a record-breaking fine and ordering him to repay nearly $320,000 for expenses he incurred for travel costs for his NYPD security detail during his longshot 2020 presidential campaign.
The New York City Conflicts of Interest Board fined the mayor the largest penalty in its history — $155,000 — for violating its guidance ahead of his presidential campaign.
“The Board advised respondent…prior to his campaign; respondent disregarded the board’s advice,” an order released by the COIB on Thursday noted.
Before his presidential campaign launched in May 2019, an attorney for the mayor asked the COIB if the city could pay for the cost of de Blasio’s security detail while traveling for his presidential campaign. The agency offered written guidance explaining that the city could cover the NYPD detail's salaries, but not their travel expenses.
De Blasio officially announced his presidential bid the day after his team was sent this written guidance, according to the COIB.
During the four months on the campaign trail, the city incurred costs for 31 out-of-state trips de Blasio took with his NYPD security detail to political events. The cost of their travel was $319,794.20. Those costs were found to be a violation of the City Charter for the misuse of city resources.
The COIB's order released on Thursday is based on the recommendations issued by a judge with the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. Administrative Law Judge Kevin Casey conducted a hearing in December 2022 and issued his recommendations last month.
De Blasio did not testify at that hearing, but two witnesses were called on his behalf: John Miller, who had served as the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism and had overseen de Blasio’s NYPD security detail in 2019; and Henry Berger, an attorney who had served as the mayor's special counsel from 2014 to 2018.
According to his testimony, Miller said the NYPD conducted routine threat assessments for public officials. He argued that making an official pay for their own security might encourage someone to ignore the NYPD’s security recommendations, which could then pose a risk to the city government itself.
In his testimony, Berger noted that de Blasio had taken previous political trips with NYPD security that had not been an issue for the COIB, including to speak at a Labour Party conference in England in 2014, to Iowa in 2015, and to campaign for Hillary Clinton's presidential run in Wisconsin and attend the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in 2016.
Berger told Gothamist that this decision by the COIB sets a dangerous precedent for public officials.
“The mayor's office does not determine the security and arrangements for the mayor. The police department does,” Berger said. He also noted that the role of NYPD security at out-of-state events was not political.
“They're not handing out literature. They're not scheduling, they're not interacting with the voters. They're there to make sure that nothing bad happens to the mayor,” said Berger.
He said a decision like this might dissuade an elected official from adhering to the NYPD’s security guidance in the future.
Miller told Gothamist that The NYPD followed an established practice, where the security detail went where the mayor went. The practice dated back over multiple mayors and reflected the fact that even when the mayor travels for business, personal or political reasons, that person is still the mayor, Miller said. He also said the guidance reflect a point in time when the mayor experienced a growing number of threats.
“These threats included threats to shoot the mayor, hang the mayor and target his family,” said Miller, who is currently the chief law enforcement and intelligence correspondent for CNN.
“As the official who, at that time, was ultimately responsible for the protection of the sitting mayor, shifting the cost for security to the individual protectee or a campaign could mean that critical decisions around security would be made based on cost or the ability to afford, rather than police departments assessment of what is needed.”
An attorney for the former mayor blasted the COIB's decision as “reckless and arbitrary.”
“In a time of unprecedented threats of political violence, the COIB’s reckless and arbitrary ruling threatens the safety and security of our democratically elected public servants,” said Andrew G. Celli, Jr. in a statement. “With today’s decision, the COIB has broken with decades of NYPD policy and precedent, ignored the professional expertise of the greatest law enforcement agency in the world, and violated the Constitution to boot.”
Celli said he filed a petition in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on Thursday seeking to block both the fine and repayment.
The Department of Investigation, which had also been investigating the former mayor’s use of his NYPD security in other matters, combined that investigation with a look at how the NYPD security detail were paid for during the presidential campaign. Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said the COIB’s findings underscore that city officials will be held accountable no matter what position they hold.
“The Conflicts of Interest Board’s conclusions regarding former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s misuse of his security detail reaffirms DOI’s investigative findings, and shows that public officials — including the most senior — will be held accountable when they violate the rules,” Strauber said in a statement.
Neither de Blasio nor his spokesperson provided an additional comment.
The COIB fine is just the latest financial headache for de Blasio stemming from his brief presidential bid. In April, the Federal Elections Commission fined him $53,000 for fundraising violations associated with his presidential campaign committee and his associated political action committees.
This story has been updated with comment from John Miller.
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Former NYC Mayor de Blasio hit with historic conflict of interest fine in failed presidential run - Gothamist
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