Haggerty Trial Begins
What will likely be one of New York’s most interesting election law-related trials in a very long time began yesterday in a Manhattan court room.
The New York County District Attorney’s Office has accused political operative John Haggerty of stealing $1.1 million from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. They say that during the 2009 mayoral election, incumbent Mayor Bloomberg provided the state Independence Party with $1.1 million to pay for “ballot security” efforts on Election Day 2009, but that Haggerty took most of that money for his own personal use.
Haggerty’s lawyers say that no crime was committed – at least not by their client. They argue that Bloomberg routed the ballot security payments through an outside organization – the Independence Party — so that the information would not have to be reported by his campaign as a campaign expense (avoiding possible accusations of voter suppression), and that doing so violated the state Election Law. For his part, Mayor Bloomberg says that no money was stolen from him.
Bloomberg and his political aides were given immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying before the grand jury testimony. Mayor Bloomberg is expected to take the stand in this case.
Haggerty is ostensibly the target of this prosecution, but it’s really New York State’s campaign finance laws that are on trial here.