Blas’ Legal Mystery
L ast week brought news that Mayor de Blasio owes over a quarter-million in legal bills, but the big mystery remains unchanged: How’s he going to pay it?
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel has yet to see a dime for repping the mayor in state and federal corruption investigations. Disclosure forms he filed Friday show he went in the hole between $250,000 and $500,000 in 2016, and that doesn’t include the bills for the first quarter of 2017.
So how does de Blasio get out of this huge personal financial hole?
His initial plan was to launch a legal defense fund so his fat-cat friends and those doing business with the city could kick in, as they did with his now-defunct Campaign for One New York. But the city Conflicts of Interest Board set a donation limit of $50 a person for the fund. At that rate, the mayor will need a whole lot of good friends.
The law firm can’t just write off the tab: That would be an illegal gift. (Though does any other client merit a legal layaway plan?)
Then again, the mayor cover it him- self, by selling one of his Brooklyn properties. He’d hardly be the first person who had to pay out of pocket for his own legal defense.
Or, as we’ve noted, he could send city taxpayers the bill. He’s legally entitled to do so — and the city is paying the tab for mayoral aides caught up in the probes. But that’s a risky move in an election year.
De Blasio seems inclined to have the City Council pass a bill legalizing a defense fund with maximum donations at $4,950, the same as in campaign committees.
Council members love the idea, since it would apply to any defense funds they might set up, too. But it’s also an end-run around those campaign-finance laws that the mayor and most of the council claim to love: It would effectively allow donors to double their gifts by kicking in to both campaign and legal funds.
Of course, the council won’t want to talk about this before Election Day. But don’t be surprised to see swift action after the polls close to legalize what would essentially be another form of pay-to-play.