De Blasio hit with historic conflicts of interest fine over presidential run

The former New York City mayor was ordered to pay nearly $500,000 for billing taxpayers for police officers' travel expenses during his failed White House bid.

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.

The former mayor was ordered 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 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 Congressmembers [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 September, racking up $319,794 in costs the board had warned against charging the city for. 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.

In response to the ruling, the Department of Investigation said that 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.