John Haggerty Motions Ruling

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel's decision on John Haggerty's motion to dismiss charges.

Decision on Haggerty motions

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Michael Bloomberg John Haggerty Transcripts

Flashback Rewind : Trial testimony provided by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the Mayor's shady 2009 campaign finance crimes trial involving GOP operative John Haggerty.

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John Haggerty H. R. Haldeman Jail Time

NYDaily News : John Haggerty was sentenced to 1 1/3 to 4 years on each of two counts of supposedly "stealing" money from Mayor Michael Bloomberg. After being sentenced, Mr. Haggerty was taken into custody.

From The New York Daily News :

The Queens political operative who stole nearly $1 million from Mayor Bloomberg is heading to the slammer.

A judge dismissed pleas for leniency and sentenced John Haggerty to one and a third to four years in state prison.

Probation was not enough, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel said, “in order to restore the public confidence in the electoral process and to serve as a deterent.”

Also, Haggerty will have to return the $900,000 or so he stole from Bloomberg, the judge said.

That means Haggerty will likely have to sell the $1.6 million Forest Hills house he grew up in — and which he ripped off the mayor to buy out his brother’s share. ...

Mayor Bloomberg's shady campaign finance scandal is an outrage, not to mention the fact that Mayor Bloomberg was hiring political operatives to suppress the vote through "thinly-veiled ballot security operations," but, just like the Watergate scandal, only the aids to the executive politician go to jail, not the crooked politician, who gets blanket immunity/pardon.

Allison Jaffin-Haggerty Scam Witness

05 Oct 2011 Update : Fiona Reid has been identified as the double-dipping mayoral aide, who carried out an affair with Mr. Haggerty.

Mayor Bloomberg pays Allison Jaffin two salaries, even though she works for New York City. Ms. Jaffin is now a key witness in the criminal trial about the secret campaign money funneled to Mr. Haggerty in the 2009 New York City Mayoral Campaign.

When it comes to getting paid, Allison Jaffin likes to ''double dip'' -- she gets her first paycheck from the City of New York and a second one from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's private checkbook.

Ms. Jaffin has been identified as a key witness in the criminal investigation and trial against John Haggerty, a Queens Republican political operative, who stands accused of misusing over $1 million in undisclosed campaign payments paid in 2009 -- not by the Committee to Reëlect the Mayor (CREEM), but by (again) Mayor Bloomberg's private checkbook. Ms. Jaffin is alleged to have helped arrange the large yet unreported campaign cash transaction between Mayor Bloomberg and Mr. Haggerty.

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Separately, it has recently come to light that Mr. Haggerty has been accused to have been having an affair with an unnamed mayoral aide, who was also linked with CREEM, according to desperate and lascivious rumours mysteriously leaked to The New York Daily News.

For his part, Mayor Bloomberg asserts that there's nothing wrong for one of his female aids to make money on the side. ''Mr. Bloomberg said he saw nothing wrong with his paying government employees for private work,'' reported The Wall Street Journal.

Ms. Jaffin, The Journal reported, is on the city payroll, gets paid a second time from the mayor's ''private payroll,'' and, in 2009, she volunteered for CREEM. Separately, The New York Daily News has reported that Ms. Jaffin has also worked for the Bloomberg Family Foundation. It's not yet known who was the double-dipping mayoral aide, with whom Mr. Haggerty carried his torrid, extramarital affair. But artist and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy believes that the salacious rumours leaked to The Daily News was an underhanded way to bully Mr. Haggerty into keeping his mouth shut.

John Haggerty Update - Is the Report of Mr. Haggerty's Alleged Affair Part of a Distraction Strategy ?

The New York Daily News tries to shame John Haggerty by publicising an alleged extra marital affair Mr. Haggerty had in the time before Mayor Michael Bloomberg's 2009 reëlection. Artist and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy gives us her analysis of this latest tangential distraction from Mayor Bloomberg's campaign finance scandal. Does the fact that Mr. Haggerty had or did not have an affair have any bearing on the fact that Mayor Bloomberg used undeclared private funds for campaign-related activities ? Listen to Ms. Troy and decide for yourself.

2009 Campaign Payments Fraud - Update

The New York Times reported :
''Suit Suggests Political Party Knew of Fraud''

UPDATED !
In contradictory new developments in the trial against GOP operative John Haggerty, prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's office allege that ''Mr. Haggerty lied to the Bloomberg campaign to get it to pay $1.2 million to the Independence Party,'' according to court documents released on February 17 and reported about by The Times.

How did Mr. Haggerty lie to the Bloomberg campaign to get it to pay $1.2 million to the Independence Party, if the campaign to reëlect the mayor (CREEM) knowingly used Mayor Bloomberg's private banking accounts to ''wash in'' money in order to deliberately funnel the Independence Party donations to Mr. Haggerty ?

What is more, the reporter Aram Roston from PolitickerNY has raised questions about Mayor Bloomberg's pattern in using private donations for campaign-related activities. Indeed, in court filings made on December 15, 2010, in the criminal trial against Mr. Haggerty, defense attorneys made assertions that CREEM "intentionally chose the least transparent way possible to conduct ballot security....It was Mr. Bloomberg who chose to hide payments, not Mr. Haggerty," reported The Wall Street Journal. The Journal's article added :

Mr. Haggerty's attorneys suggested the district attorney's office should "commence an investigation immediately" into the possibility that the mayor violated laws by transferring personal funds to the Independence Party for the direct purpose of helping his campaign with a ballot-security operation. If Mr. Bloomberg "made the contribution directing how it should be spent, he would be in violation of both the New York State Election Law and the New York City Campaign finance Law," Mr. Haggerty's attorneys allege.

According to New York State law, contributions in excess of $94,200 to a state political party are prohibited from being used to promote a candidate, The Journal reported. Furthermore, New York City law requires politicians' electoral campaigns to report and disclose campaign-related expenditures, and The Journal added that Mayor Bloomberg's ballot-security operations expenditures were not reported or disclosed by CREEM.

Adding to the lack of transparency about Mayor Bloomberg's intent in structuring the expeditures by transferring personal funds to the Independence Party is the fact that the Mayor's Office refuses to release all related e-mails about campaign-related activities. After The New York Post filed a Freedom of Information request, demanding more information about Mr. Haggerty's involvement with the Mayor's Office, the Mayor's Office release only "nine e-mail exchanges" between Mr. Haggerty and "mayoral aides" during 2008 and 2009. "There were other e-mails that the mayor's refuses to release on the grounds of 'personal privacy,' " The Post reported.

Meanwhile, back to The Times's own report about the February 17 court documents : this is the first time that prosecutors have said the Independence Party may have known about the alleged fraud. But The Times seems to be continuing with the storyline that the ''fraud'' committed was that the act that Mr. Haggerty used the CREEM payments for personal use, not that CREEM failed to disclose Mr. Haggerty's work as campaign-related activities.

''An extensive review of records and campaign documents by The Observer, as well as interviews with witnesses, indicate that Mr. Bloomberg funneled money to Mr. Haggerty, who claimed to be a 'volunteer,' sidestepping the political committee the mayor had promised to use to finance his election campaign. By deploying Mr. Haggerty and an unrelated political party, the mayor's team avoided drawing attention to a controversial election day tactic. But even more serious, experts say Bloomberg may have broken campaign finance laws,'' reported Mr. Roston.

The way that CREEM structured the payments to Mr. Haggerty allowed CREEM to avoid having to legally disclose the payments (and controversial activities), and the structure troubles some legal experts. "This is clearly an attempt to evade the purpose of the law," John Moscow, a former white-collar prosecutor in Manhattan, told Mr. Roston.

Meanwhile, the artist and blogger Suzannah B. Troy offers a slightly different political analysis. Mr. Haggerty is a "fall guy," she wrote. ''I have been saying all along Haggerty is innocent ! John Haggerty is as innocent as Mike Bloomberg,'' wrote Ms. Troy. ''Technically there is no doubt Haggerty broke the law but so did Mike Bloomberg by wiring money from his personal account, 1.1 million dollars the day before the election !''

The controversial campaign reëlection-related services that Mr. Haggerty was hired to provide have been described as a ''ballot security operation.'' In Mr. Roston's article, the impression of the ballot security operation was to presumably discourage or fend off the voters of Mr. Bloomberg's opponent, Controller Bill Thompson (D), an African-American. Although alluded to, left unsaid was whether the ballot security operation was intended to deliberately turn away Mr. Thompson's African-American voters from the polls.

Republicans stick together

George, Rudy and Mike: So Happy Together

"As Rudy Giuliani comes to town to campaign for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, remember that Republicans stick together."

Mayor and NYC in descent

Revisiting Angry Moments on Term Limits

It’s not just about how Mayor Bloomberg ordered by mayoral fiat the overturning of term limits laws, but also how he has run this city into the ground. How many accidents have taken place regarding the collapse of our infrastructure ? The Queens Blackout of 2006, the steam pipe explosion on Lexington Avenue, how many cranes keep collapsing on the streets, how many people keep getting electrocuted by Con Edison manhole covers, how many buildings and churches does NYU get to tear down, for how many more weekends will the MTA be allowed to practically shut down the entire system, for how many more years will Ground Zero remain just a pit ? What has Mayor Bloomberg done in 8 years ? What makes him think he needs another 4 ? 8 is enough ! Only someone driven by greed, selfishness, and an over-inflated ego would think he deserves more and more and more and more and more . . . .

Mayor Bloomberg, infrastructure breaks & democracy

No Third Term for Republican$

Mike Bloomberg $till ha$ $trong tie$ to G.O.P. !

"Don't forget about me!" -- Bloomberg i$ running on the Republican Party ticket, and he $till donate$ thou$and$ and thou$and$ of dollar$ to Republican$.

Here is information about Michael Bloomberg's campaign contributions, as assembled and collected by Bill Thompson's campaign. Reportedly, 88 percent of Bloomberg’s political contributions since 2002 has gone to the Republican Party.

LGBT Chamber of Commerce endorses Bloomberg despite Mayor's appeal of gay marriage ruling

NYC LGBT Chamber of Commerce betrays the LGBT community by endorsing Republican Mayor who used litigation to overturn gay marriage ruling in New York.

Gay Sell-Outs: 'Are you listening????'

Last weekend, a few hundred thousand people from across the nation chartered buses to assemble in protest against the Obama administration's unfulfilled campaign promises to support equality for the GLBT community.

Meanwhile, here in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a history of not only ignoring equal rights, but also filing litigation to overturn advances toward equality. For example, thanks to Mayor Bloomberg, same-sex marriage cannot legally be performed in New York.

FLASHBACK TO 2005: After NY Supreme Court Judge Doris Ling-Cohen issued a judicial ruling that the right to marry the person of one's choosing in New York was both a privacy right and a liberty right, her decision was to be appealed by order of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Yet, in the face of the Mayor's expressed opposition against gay marriage, here comes the NYC LGBT Chamber of Commerce, which has chosen to endorse Bloomberg in his ill-fated third term campaign for mayor.

All those New Yorkers who chartered buses and made the 4 hour trek to DC should pile on the R train to City Hall and demonstrate against Mayor Bloomberg -- and the LGBT Chamber of Commerce.

Sell-outs !

NYT awakens to reality. Will Bloomberg ?

Anger Over Term Limits Dogs Mayor

By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: October 3, 2009

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s re-election campaign can generate reams of statistics on how quickly the city repaired potholes in each neighborhood. It can produce memos on climate change and public health, and even translate its campaign fliers into Creole.

Just don’t ask about term limits.

Rosemary DeStefano found that out on her doorstep in the Bronx the other day when a Bloomberg volunteer showed up, asking for her vote.

When she complained about how the mayor had the law changed to stay in office, the volunteer recited details of his economic plan. When she persisted, he extolled Mr. Bloomberg’s promise to create 400,000 jobs.

“They missed the whole point,” she said.

With five weeks remaining until Election Day, little seems uncertain in the contest between the colossally advantaged incumbent, Mr. Bloomberg, and his lesser-known rival, William C. Thompson Jr. But interviews with both campaigns and dozens of voters reveal that anger over a single issue still simmers, seemingly immune to a flood of television commercials and glossy brochures.

That bedevils Bloomberg advisers and gives hope to his underfunded challenger.

Disenchantment over the change in the law helped topple four veteran City Council members this fall, the greatest repudiation of incumbents in a generation, and has catapulted two local lawmakers who opposed the measure into citywide office.

“The Bloomberg campaign can’t convince voters to not be upset about this. It won’t work,” said John H. Mollenkopf, a professor of political science at City University who has informally advised the Bloomberg campaign.

“If you ask New Yorkers what they did not like over the last eight years,” he added, “term limits is the major negative.”

Mr. Thompson is building his entire campaign around the topic, adopting the slogan “Eight Is Enough,” accusing the mayor of breaking his word and preparing commercials that portray him as a power-hungry mogul who plays by his own rules.

He will make it a major line of attack during two candidate debates and turn it into a rallying cry in the days leading up to Election Day, the anniversary of the term limits change, which Mr. Bloomberg signed into law on Nov. 3, 2008. “It will be a big theme,” said Eduardo Castell, Mr. Thompson’s campaign manager.

The mayor’s political advisers privately acknowledge the public anger, but since they cannot reverse Mr. Bloomberg’s actions, they are looking for ways to deflect attention from it.

They have created a new round of commercials that play up Mr. Bloomberg’s middle-class roots, to soften his image as an imperious billionaire who defied the will of the voters.

They are leveling frequent attacks at Mr. Thompson’s record, as president of the Board of Education and comptroller, to send the message that, even if voters are still resentful about term limits, they would be foolhardy to entrust a complex city to an untested leader.

If voters insist on talking about term limits, volunteers are instructed to tell them the mayor “is not guaranteed” a third term and has given them “more choice” by changing the rules.

“Bill Thompson wants to make this election about one issue,” said the mayor’s campaign manager, Bradley Tusk. “And given his track record that’s understandable. But the performance of the mayor has an enormous impact on people’s lives, and because of that, voters choose their mayor based on very real tangible issues.”

No one is predicting that resentment over term limits will, by itself, be enough to cost the mayor the election. But in interviews, political analysts and pollsters said that unease over the issue helps account for a stubborn anomaly in New Yorkers’ feelings about the mayor. Polls consistently show that a large majority (roughly 70 percent) approve of his performance, but that a significantly smaller number (50 percent) plan to vote for him in November.

The 50 percent figure has not budged in months, even though the Bloomberg campaign has spent about $65 million to promote the mayor’s record. “Term limits has a lot to do with that,” said Geoff Garin, Mr. Thompson’s pollster. “It has put a ceiling on good will toward the mayor.”

Marilyn Arthold, 64, who lives in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, said she “personally likes the mayor,” but is outraged by how he changed the term limits law, which she voted for in the 1990s, and she will consider voting against him because of it.

Those involved in the mayor’s campaign said the issue has unexpected staying power, a year after City Hall introduced the legislation allowing officials to serve three consecutive terms, not two.

“It comes up a lot with voters,” said one campaign staff member. Back in the fall of 2008, when Mr. Bloomberg and his aides fought to change the rule, they made two predictions: that voters would be distracted by a closely watched presidential election, and that any anger over the move would recede by Election Day 2009.

They may have been overoptimistic, pollsters and analysts said.

“The anger in the electorate remains an inconvenient truth for the Bloomberg campaign,” said Bruce N. Gyory, a political consultant.

New York voters approved a referendum limiting council members and officials elected citywide to two four-year terms in 1993, and then ratified that vote in a second referendum in 1996. Mr. Bloomberg, in overturning the law, rewrote it through legislation that was approved by the City Council; critics and good-government groups said any change should have gone before the voters.

Mr. Bloomberg had been outspoken in his opposition to changing term limits, saying any effort to do so would be a “disgrace.”

Just how much it will hurt him on Election Day remains an open question, however. Many voters who intensely opposed the change said they planned to vote for him, citing his skills as a manager and a weak opponent.

“If it were anyone else, I would probably be against him,” said Carlo Dioguardi, who lives in Battery Park City and voted in favor of term limits. “I don’t think anyone else can do the job he’s done.”

As for those who are less forgiving?

The campaign’s strategy of changing the topic occasionally backfires. A few days after Ms. DeStefano’s confrontation with a Bloomberg campaign volunteer in the Bronx, a handwritten letter arrived in her mailbox, ticking off the mayor’s plans to improve the economy in the borough. Ms. DeStefano, a 75-year-old Republican, tore it up.

“I didn’t ask about jobs,” she said. “I asked about term limits.”

Veterans reject Bloomberg

Veterans groups AWOL from Mayor Bloomberg's list of endorsements

From The Daily News :

"Mayor Bloomberg appears to have a veteran problem. As of last week, his campaign counted more than 400 endorsements - but just one of them was from a veterans group. And that group doesn't even exist.

"...Bloomberg hasn't reached out to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, hasn't done enough to help homeless or addicted vets, and hasn't gone out of his way to help veterans get jobs and housing.

"...And Bloomberg has been to only one servicemember's funeral in more than three years."

YouTube censors Blogger

WEEKS BEFORE NYC MAYORAL ELECTION, YOUTUBE.COM SUPPRESSES FREE SPEECH

YouTube.com has censored the artist-activist-citizen journalist Suzannah B. Troy by suspending her entire account (300 videos).

Suzannah B. Troy, a New York City-based artist, citizen journalist, and blogger, has had her YouTube.com account inexplicably suspended by the popular video website.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Suzannahartist

First Suzannah B. Troy, next us.

Ms. Troy has spent months creating, editing, and posting hundreds of original citizen journalist videos focusing on the controversial election this year of local candidates running for third terms in office. In particular, Ms. Troy's videos have been highly critical of the New York City Council and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The nature of the videos on her YouTube.com account have ranged from breaking news-quality videos of voter demonstrations, to video blogs of her commentary on the elections, to artistic interpretation of news events. There is no reason for her account to be suspended by YouTube other than for the political and artistic nature of their content.

Please write to Youtube at: press@youtube.com and ask them for their official policy of suspending accounts of artists and citizen journalists.

We are only weeks away from an important election, which shall decide if City Council Members and Mayor Bloomberg will thwart the will of voters' two referrenda on term limits. And missing from the free exchange of ideas during the critical debates that will be taking place in the time leading up to the election will be Ms. Troy's body of work.

Without you stepping in to blog, publish, or report about this questionable suspension of Ms. Troy's YouTube account (as well as the potential of loss of hundreds of videos), other citizen journalists may face the same sad fate : cyber suppression.

Please consider the importance of voter participation in free and open democratic elections.

UPDATE: After pressure, YouTube.com restores Blogger's account

The blog site Queens Crap is reporting that YouTube has restored Suzannah B. Troy's account.

Bloomberg: Politics, not progress

Remember the 2006 Queens Blackout

Bloomberg didn't care, and I won't forget that.

Bloomberg's second term to end on sad note

With primary election over, activists focus on thwarting Bloomberg's campaign for a controversial third term as Mayor of New York City.

"MAYOR BLOOMBERG SHOULD FOCUS ON UNDOING THE DAMAGE HE HAS CREATED IN NYC FOR THE NEXT 80 PLUS DAYS HE HAS LEFT IN OFFICE," wrote Luis A. Ramos on Facebook.

Mark Green exposes Mike Bloomberg

Billionaire socialite Michael Bloomberg, in an ill-fated, ego-driven drive for an unprecedented third term in office as mayor, deliberately denied voters a referendum on extending term limits and is believed to be willing to spend upwards of $100 million of his own money to win re-election.

What is wrong with this picture ?

Mark Green on NY1's Inside City Hall with Dominic Carter : discussing the Term Limits Extension in New York City.

Inconvenient Truth about Michael Bloomberg's ads

Don't vote for Mayor Michael Bloomberg !!! Part 1

"Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks that he can use his power and enormous wealth to fool New Yorkers into thinking he actually cares about the poor and middle class. In his two terms as mayor he has done absolutely nothing but cut funding to every facility that the middle class and poor depended upon to get by and has raised every tax he could get his hands on. He has rewritten the law by increasing term limits so he can run for mayor and possibly serve a 3rd term, New Yorkers had absolutely no say in this decision. This man has shown New York just how heartless you have to be to be a billionaire without winning the lotto by taking everything and giving back nothing. Don't vote for this man, he is transforming New York into a tourist attraction and a resort for himself and his fellow millionaire and billionaire friends. This advertisement is on me Mayor Mike Bloomberg."

The New Yorker magazine exposes Bloomberg's ego-driven third term campaign

"The Untouchable: Can a good mayor amass too much power?" by Ben McGrath. Illustration by: Gerald Scarfe.

Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York: ambitious younger mayors around the country call him Papa Smurf. Photograph by Platon. Read the article by clicking here or on the picture.

NY City Council extends Term Limits

Flashback to October 2008: Amid High Emotions, Council Clears Bloomberg's Third Term Bid by WNYC reporter Kathleen Horan.

"Speaker Christine Quinn, who brought the mayor's bill to the floor, defended the extension of term limits by saying it was increasing voter choice."

""Make no mistake," said Speaker Quinn. "I believe that our great city will get through these challenges and emerge stronger than ever before. I also believe that in challenging times like these, the voters should have the choice — the choice to continue their current leadership. They should have the right to vote for the current mayor, or a new one, for their current City Council member, or a new one. That is exactly what is at stake today."

To listen to the entire WNYC radio report, please click on the mp3 player above.

Michael Bloomberg Loves George W. Bush

Flashback: 2004 at the Republican National Convention

Remember: Michael Bloomberg is a Republican at heart.