Pol stonewalls suit on WFP campaign
Mon, Nov 2, 2009
By EDMUND DeMARCHE and MAGGIE HABERMAN
Posted: 2:49 AM, October 31, 2009
A City Council hopeful won’t cough up documents related to whether the Working Families Party is scamming the campaign finance system — because the case could involve “criminal liability,” according to documents released yesterday.
But last night, Rose tried reversing course, backing off her campaign’s argument against revealing the records based on the Fifth Amendment, which protects against self-incrimination.
The bombshell development was revealed at a court hearing where lawyers for the WFP and the campaign of Staten Island candidate Debi Rose tried to get a suit against them tossed.
Former Giuliani administration Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, the lawyer opposing the Rose campaign, called it an “extraordinary development.”
But last night, Rose tried reversing course, backing off her campaign’s argument against revealing the records based on the Fifth Amendment, which protects against self-incrimination.
“If my attorney objected to the motion on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment, as some reports indicate, that is not my position and I will instruct him to withdraw that objection,” Rose said.
She still opposes the release, however.
In yesterday’s hearing, the judge didn’t rule on a request to dismiss the suit by a group of voters claiming they were disenfranchised by the way the WFP’s political arm, Data and Field Services, operates.
The first-of-its-kind suit, which Mastro says he’s doing free of charge, comes as the WFP has been briskly increasing its influence in city races.
Rose’s move to block the release of the campaign documents on Fifth Amendment grounds was revealed in an affidavit filed by the plaintiffs.
The WFP and Rose had tried Thursday to buck a discovery request saying they had to produce documents and campaign finance records.
A lawyer for the campaign said Rose’s treasurer, David Thomas, wouldn’t produce them because they “may implicate criminal liability and his client would therefore have Fifth Amendment rights protecting him from having to make any such compelled disclosure,” according to the affidavit, which quoted a deputy clerk in the Appellate Division.
Even Larry Mandelker, a lawyer for Data and Field Services, expressed surprise in court yesterday. He said, “I was very struck by the statement that was made by the counsel for the campaign. But that’s not my client . . . I heard it, and I noted it.”
Outside court, Data and Field Services spokesman Bryan Collinsworth said the Fifth Amendment issue wasn’t raised by his client.
But he slammed the suit, which includes an affidavit by Rudy Giuliani’s current political adviser, Jake Menges.
Collinsworth called it a “frivolous lawsuit brought by Giuliani and Republican hacks. They’re going on a fishing expedition to stop the historic election of the first African-American on Staten Island.”
Collinsworth noted that Judge Anthony Giacobbe told Mastro that his side needed to offer some specifics for what it’s looking for.
Mastro’s side has to offer its beefed-up records request next week, and Rose and DFS have a week to respond.
The next hearing date is Nov. 16.
Mastro filed the suit last Monday, alleging that the WFP has been systematically scheming the campaign finance system, which has strict spending caps.
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