PrintDecember 1, 2007
Is Rudy in Trouble over questions about Protecting Judith?
The drumbeat of questions are increasing over allegations that while Mayor, Rudy Giuliani used his protection service to shuttle his then mistress, now wife Judith Nathan around town and then hid the evidence by billing other agencies of the city.
Giuliani denies everything:
The Rudy Giuliani campaign spent Wednesday night fending off questions about the former New York City mayor's special police detail in the Hamptons, especially on how the cost was billed to the city.And there is word that Judith Giuliani abused the protection service:
"They were handled as far as I know, perfectly appropriately," Giuliani when pressed on the issue by CNN's Anderson Cooper during Wednesday night's CNN/YouTube Republican Debate.
A national debate put Giuliani in the spotlight over spotty billing practices. Tens of thousands of dollars in security was charged to obscure city agencies, says politico.com.
Six years later, presidential candidate Giuliani is facing questions about that security. A source involved with the mayor's operations at the time tells CBS 2 HD that Nathan took flagrant advantage of that police car and driver.It appears to me that some of the evidence is pretty solid. The question is was it illegal? No one is sure at this point although almost all agree that if true, the practice would have been unethical.
The source says Nathan forced police to chauffeur her friends and family around the city -- even when she wasn't in the car. That set off alarms with ethics watchdogs.
"The rules are clear, you can't use city resources for private reasons," said Gene Russianoff of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "And if you're using a city car, a police driven car to chauffeur around relatives, unless they're explicitly protected and their deemed to be the subject of potential security threats, it's just wrong."
I don't think what Judith Giuliani did with the service will hurt Giuliani - unless someone comes forward and says he was aware of it. But the billing for the security is another matter. Laws may have been broken which may put Giuliani in an awkward position.
Not only does this call into question Giuliani's honesty and integrity, but it also serves as a reminder that Rudy was playing around on his wife while having the NY city police protect and shuttle Judith and her family around New York.
Fallout at this point is unknown. But like any scandal, the drip, drip, drip of revelations may eventually take its toll and Giuliani could genuinely be hurt by the story.
