Shag Fund -- It's on Us!
By Josh Marshall
TPM
Yesterday, every reporter who wanted a copy, was allowed to go down to City Hall and pick up copies of the city financial records that were the basis of the original Shag Fund report in the Politico.com. That's how we found out about the weird $400,000 prepayment to American Express, which appears to have been yet another method of taking city money and running it through enough buckets that it could be used for pretty much anything Rudy and his crew wanted to use it for. Some stuff legit, other stuff pretty questionable. The Daily News asked top Giuliani advisor Anthony Carbonetti about the prepayment and were told that, "it's fiscally responsible to anticipate predictable expenses and prepay them."
In other words, I guess fiscal responsibility can mean a lot of things.
In any case, this was a pretty thick stack of paper. Our muck crew actually spent pretty much the whole trying to make sense of it. (We actually broke in a new intern yesterday working exclusive on the Shag Fund accounting project, who did a great job.) We focused on the accounting methods while the city dailies focused more on what was actually paid for. So, from looking at their articles this morning, we can get yet a fuller picture.
The Shag Fund not only paid for the 11 tryst visits to Hamptons.
-- It paid for hotel and other expenses for mayoral aides -- in addition to the security detail -- who also went with the mayor to the Hamptons on the tryst weekends.
-- Nathan's NYPD-chauffeured trips (without Rudy) to visit her parents in Pennsylvania, 130 miles outside the city.
-- NYPD detectives and city-owned undercover Dodge to drive Nathan around the city.
-- NYPD detectives and city-owned undercover Dodge to drive Nathan's friends and family around the city even when she wasn't in the car.
-- NYPD security detail for Nathan, personally approved by Bernard Kerik.
-- NYPD cops to walk Nathan's dog.
(The article is here.)
TPM
Yesterday, every reporter who wanted a copy, was allowed to go down to City Hall and pick up copies of the city financial records that were the basis of the original Shag Fund report in the Politico.com. That's how we found out about the weird $400,000 prepayment to American Express, which appears to have been yet another method of taking city money and running it through enough buckets that it could be used for pretty much anything Rudy and his crew wanted to use it for. Some stuff legit, other stuff pretty questionable. The Daily News asked top Giuliani advisor Anthony Carbonetti about the prepayment and were told that, "it's fiscally responsible to anticipate predictable expenses and prepay them."
In other words, I guess fiscal responsibility can mean a lot of things.
In any case, this was a pretty thick stack of paper. Our muck crew actually spent pretty much the whole trying to make sense of it. (We actually broke in a new intern yesterday working exclusive on the Shag Fund accounting project, who did a great job.) We focused on the accounting methods while the city dailies focused more on what was actually paid for. So, from looking at their articles this morning, we can get yet a fuller picture.
The Shag Fund not only paid for the 11 tryst visits to Hamptons.
-- It paid for hotel and other expenses for mayoral aides -- in addition to the security detail -- who also went with the mayor to the Hamptons on the tryst weekends.
-- Nathan's NYPD-chauffeured trips (without Rudy) to visit her parents in Pennsylvania, 130 miles outside the city.
-- NYPD detectives and city-owned undercover Dodge to drive Nathan around the city.
-- NYPD detectives and city-owned undercover Dodge to drive Nathan's friends and family around the city even when she wasn't in the car.
-- NYPD security detail for Nathan, personally approved by Bernard Kerik.
-- NYPD cops to walk Nathan's dog.
(The article is here.)
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1 Comments:
Thanks for posting.
I just kept shaking my head in amazement as I read … then I read about the dog walking … I thought the only dog in New York that needed police protection was Leona Helmsley’s Trouble .
But then again … do we know who the police were protecting the dog from ? Remember
The New York Post reported in April : “Judith Giuliani once demonstrated surgical products for a controversial medical-supply company that used dogs - which were later killed - in operations whose only purpose was to sell equipment to doctors.”
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