Did New Yorkers pay for Giuliani's affair?

Why did the mayor bill obscure city offices for trips to the Hamptons?

Published November 28, 2007 8:50PM (EST)

Maybe GOP "values voters" will someday get their minds around supporting thrice-married Rudy Giuliani as their party's presidential nominee. But can the GOP's "fiscal responsibility" voters -- to the extent there are any left -- stomach the idea that Giuliani may have billed random New York City agencies for security costs incurred when he was visiting his then mistress?

Documents obtained through New York's equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act show that Giuliani billed "little-known city offices" for "tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons," the Politico reports.

As the Politico notes, it's "impossible to know whether the purpose of all the Hamptons trips was to see Nathan." However, it's also pretty impossible to see how security on trips to the Hamptons could have been the legitimate responsibility of city offices responsible "for regulating loft apartments, aiding the disabled and providing lawyers for indigent defendants."

The Giuliani campaign declined to comment for the Politico's story.


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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