Court Orders Campaign for One New York to Comply With JCOPE Subpoena

A State Supreme Court judge has ordered the Campaign for One New York, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s political nonprofit, to comply with a subpoena from the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), the state’s lobbying regulator.

The Campaign for One New York’s lawyers had initially cooperated with JCOPE’s investigation, providing documents showing that while the group was registered with JCOPE as a lobbyist in 2014, it did not register in 2015 because it did not engage in any lobbying activity.

After JCOPE issued another subpoena in May, the Campaign for One New York’s lawyers decided arguing that JCOPE was exceeding its jurisdiction.  (Read my prior post about JCOPE’s subpoena here.)

In a decision dated September 8, Acting State Supreme Court Justice Denise Hartman directed the Campaign for One New York to provide JCOPE with documents related to its expenses, income and correspondence.  She wrote:

“JCOPE has established that it had the authority to issue both subpoenas, that a factual basis exists for issuing the subpoenas, and that the material sought bears a reasonable relation to the subject matter of the investigation for all documents except for documents requested from 2013,” Justice Hartman wrote.

Mayor de Blasio said that he is considering appealing the ruling.

Read news coverage from the New York Times, Politico NY and the Daily News.