De Blasio hit with historic fine over use of NYPD for presidential run

NEW YORK — Former Mayor Bill de Blasio was hit with a historic fine Thursday by New York City’s Conflicts of Interest Board for using an NYPD security detail for his ill-fated presidential run in 2019.

After finding that the mayor used taxpayer dollars for political purposes, the board ordered de Blasio to pay $474,794 — a whopping sum that includes compensating the city for police officers’ travel expenses and a $155,000 fine, the largest ever issued by COIB.

“Although there is a City purpose in the City paying for an NYPD security detail for the City’s Mayor, including the security detail’s salary and overtime, there is no City purpose in paying for the extra expenses incurred by that NYPD security detail to travel at a distance from the City to accompany the Mayor or his family on trips for his campaign for President of the United States,” board members wrote in a densely-worded Thursday order. “The Board advised Respondent to this effect prior to his campaign; Respondent disregarded the Board’s advice.”

In response, de Blasio filed a lawsuit. In a statement, his attorney said the board’s ruling was illegal and could open elected officials up to all manner of violence in an era where partisanship has reached a fever pitch.

“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,” said Andrew Celli, Jr., an attorney with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel. “In the wake of the January 6th insurrection, the shootings of Congress members [Gabby] Giffords and [Steve] Scalise, and almost daily threats directed at local leaders around the country, the COIB’s action — which seeks to saddle elected officials with security costs that the City has properly borne for decades — is dangerous, beyond the scope of their powers, and illegal.”

In May 2019, de Blasio broached the topic of a presidential run with the board, asking if the city could pick up the cost of the mayor’s security detail while out of town on the stump. In response, the board said that while taxpayers could foot the bill for salary and overtime costs, billing the city for travel costs would be a misuse of city resources.

De Blasio subsequently went on 31 out-of-state campaign trips through the fall, racking up $319,794 in the same type of security-detail costs the board had warned against. He dropped out of the race in September 2019 after he was unable to get more than 1 percent in the polls and struggled to fundraise for the long-shot bid.

The ruling from the board adds to other financial and regulatory woes facing the former mayor. Upon leaving office, de Blasio still owed white shoe law firm Kramer Levin $300,000 for representing him in an unrelated inquiry into fundraising practices while he was mayor. And in May, the Federal Election Commission fined de Blasio’s presidential campaign $53,000 for accepting improper contributions.

In response to Thursday’s ruling, the Department of Investigation said COIB’s conclusions mirrored its own report on the security detail released in 2021.

“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,” DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said in a statement Thursday.

But John Miller, a former high-ranking NYPD member who helped oversee mayoral security, said COIB’s ruling runs contrary to the thought process of the police department at the time.

The mayor’s security detail protected him during all trips whether they were personal or for work, Miller said. And the fact de Blasio was leaving town to run for president — as opposed to visiting family or another dignitary out-of-state — did not seem to change the underlying calculus: The mayor was often working on official City Hall business when out of town including for the campaign. More importantly, New York City mayors are constantly under threat because they are some of the more visible political figures in the country.

An NYPD register of threats against de Blasio that was provided to COIB listed more than 100 different instances in 2020 alone. According to Miller, people repeatedly threatened to kill or violently assault the mayor or members of his family, sometimes using racist language and graphic detail. (De Blasio's wife Chirlane McCray is Black and their children are biracial.) Many of them were ultimately deemed not to be a significant danger. But some — including a man who was later charged with plotting a terror attack in Times Square — went on to commit more serious crimes.

“I was a little disappointed in the decision,” Miller said. “It seemed to not factor in years of practice and the reality of the threat.”