NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio ‘misused’ security detail for personal and political benefit, report concludes

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has misused his security detail on multiple occasions for personal and political benefit, a city investigation has concluded.

The accusations against de Blasio, who is serving his final term as mayor, reach back to 2019, when law enforcement began accusing him of misusing city resources, including having his security detail drive his son back to college at Yale on multiple occasions. 

Since there was no specific threat against de Blasio or his son at the time, critics have chalked this up to a misuse of city resources and funds. In another instance, his security detail became professional movers for his daughter, Chiara, when they moved her into Gracie Mansion and used a police van to transport her belongings. 

The report stemming from the investigation, which was released on Thursday, found numerous other examples of de Blasio using his detail to run errands or drive staff, guests, and family around while he was not present. There is also the reported matter of more than $300,000 in security costs that the mayor is responsible for. The cost is for services provided during his brief, failed presidential campaign. 

The city paid for travel, hotels, food, etc. for the officers provided to de Blasio for trips to states like Iowa and South Carolina, but de Blasio dropped his campaign after a few months, and apparently dropped his bill too. 

The report looked beyond de Blasio’s responsibility and pointed some blame towards Inspector Howard Redmond, who was in charge of de Blasio’s security detail. According to investigators, Redmond deliberately tried to stall and delay the investigation.

“Inspector Redmond sought to obstruct this investigation by refusing to provide his City Hall-issued phone for production, deliberately seeking to destroy his NYPD-issued phone after he was informed that he must surrender it for production to DOI, and deleting all communications from both phones before they could be provided to DOI,” the report reads.

The mayor’s office has denied all accusations and blasted the “unprofessional” report as “based on illegitimate assumptions and a naive view of the complex security challenges facing elected officials today.”

De Blasio is in his final months as mayor, and rumor has it that he may be considering a run for governor. Ironically, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, with whom de Blasio often clashed publicly, was also accused while in office of misusing public resources, with it being claimed at one point that he had staff and volunteers work on their off-hours on his book, for which he would end up reportedly getting paid millions. 

The report recommends having the Conflicts of Interest Board publicly release guidelines and advice to public officials, to make it clear what is inappropriate when it comes to using city resources. 

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