De Blasio won’t give details on legal-defense funds
Mayor de Blasio declined to provide details Tuesday about the legal-defense fund he plans to set up amid state and federal investigations of his administration and fund-raising activities.
Asked at an unrelated press conference in Brooklyn how the fund would work and whether he’d impose donation limits, Hizzoner said the parameters have yet to be finalized.
“We’ll have details when we have them. We don’t have them yet,” de Blasio said.
De Blasio was also asked whether such a fund would open him up to criticism that he’s relying on donations to pay for the legal defense of investigations into his prior fund-raising.
“It’s the only way — it’s a perfectly well-established mechanism — it’s the only way to put together the resources to pay for something like this,” he said.
The mayor has committed to disclosing the donors to such a fund, which government watchdogs have warned could be on shaky ethical ground.
City taxpayers have chipped in as much as $11.6 million for the defense of mayoral aides who have been caught up in the probes, while the mayor’s 2013 campaign committee has paid $283,000 to defend campaign workers.