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Nov 29, 2007 7:22 pm US/Eastern
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Giuliani: Hamptons Detail A 'Totally False Story'
Comptroller Says Former Mayor's Administration Slammed Door On Investigation Back In 2001
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
There was more trouble Thursday for the presidential campaign of former mayor Rudy Giuliani.
The city comptroller says the mayor's men stonewalled his auditors when they tried to get to the bottom of some questionable expenses.
They turned out to be the security tab for his out-of-town trips with girlfriend Judith Nathan, now his wife.
Questions just seemed to mount Thursday about the way Giuliani or his aides handled the security bills. Auditors for City Comptroller William Thompson uncovered the problems in 2001, and he says Giuliani's men slammed the door shut on them.
"The Giuliani administration just refused to provide answers," Thompson said.
Giuliani and Nathan were a tabloid sensation in 2001. He was still married, and still running the city, so the two often fled to the peace and quiet of the Hamptons.
When the tab for his security detail came in, aides had the bills farmed out to a slew of obscure city agencies, like the Loft Board.
On Thursday night, Giuliani claims in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric that it was all handled properly; the bills were handled in a standard way.
"The story turned out to be a totally false story," Giuliani said. "Since the police department can sometimes be slow with payment … City Hall would pay it first and then the police department would reimburse every single penny of it and now we've been able to confirm that."
But Alair Townsend, former budget director from the Koch administration, disagrees.
"It seems to me they were tucking money away so people wouldn't find it," Townsend said.
It began to unravel when auditors for the comptroller's office began to ask questions. But Thompson, a Democrat, says City Hall was no help.
"When they tried to get answers to their questions they were kind of stonewalled by City Hall," Thompson said.
On Wednesday night the Giuliani campaign dispatched former deputy mayor Joe Lhota to invest the matter. Well, Thursday afternoon, Lhota said the way this was handled was standard operating procedure.
And now the question is whether the issue will dog Giuliani with just five weeks to the Iowa caucuses.
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