Month: October 2021

A report released Thursday said that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio improperly used his city-funded security detail for personal and political reason. A probe by New York City’s Department of Investigation also found that Howard Redmond — New York Police Department official who ran the mayor’s security detail — actively attempted to thwart the investigation into the misuse.

The agency’s report said de Blasio used the security detail like a “concierge service,” using it to drive his son and daughter without him. de Blasio also allegedly failed to reimburse the city $300,000 for using the security detail during his travel outside the city for his 2020 presidential run. DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett said in the report: “Protecting the mayor and his family is a serious and significant job that should be guided by best practices, formalized procedures and an understanding that security details are not personal assistants in a dignitary’s daily life but provide essential protection.”

The DOI said De Blasio faces possible ethics violations; they also plan to refer Redmond’s case to the Manhattan district attorney’s office for consideration of criminal charges. Speaking during his daily news conference Thursday, de Blasio said the report was inaccurate and unprofessional: “Look, I’m honored to be the mayor of the city, but my first responsibility was as a father and a husband. And so, I think of the safety of my family all the time. The ultimate decisions when it comes to safety must be made by security experts. The ultimate decisions on how to align security, how to protect those chosen by the people to lead need to be made by the NYPD.”

Editorial credit: rblfmr / Shutterstock.com

On Thursday, Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee released a report that reveals more details about how former President Donald Trump tried to use the Department of Justice and other government officials to invalidate the 2020 presidential election. The near 400-page report highlights a number of Trump’s actions in the report, including efforts to get the DOJ to declare the election “corrupt” in his bid to stay in the White House. It also states that Trump’s attempts provoked a near revolt in the department among officials who pushed back against the former president’s false claims of fraud, saying: “In attempting to enlist [the Justice Department] for personal, political purposes in an effort to maintain his hold on the White House, Trump grossly abused the power of the presidency. He also arguably violated the criminal provisions of the Hatch Act, which prevents any person — including the president — from commanding federal government employees to engage in political activity.”

In addition, the report stated that on Jan. 3, then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, his deputy Richard Donoghue and others met with Trump in the Oval Office to dissuade him from the idea, threatening to resign if it moved forward. White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy also threatened to resign if Trump insisted on the plot. Assistant U.S. Attorney Clark told Rosen in an earlier meeting that Trump had already decided to make him the next U.S. attorney general, and he wanted Rosen to stay on as a deputy, which led to the confrontational meeting with Trump, the report says. Donoghue told Trump that his actions would lead to a mass resignation that would include assistant attorneys general throughout the department along with other department officials.

The report also detailed a plan by Trump to pressure the department into filing a complaint with the U.S. Supreme Court on the chance that it could overturn the election results. Numerous legal challenges and recounts followed the election last fall and none of them produced any indication of widespread voter fraud.

Editorial credit: Nuno21 / Shutterstock.com