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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio misused police resources on his security detail, a new report released Thursday by the city's Department of Investigation (DOI) says, to assist in his adult daughter's move out of Brooklyn, as well as to transport campaign staff during his presidential bid.
The DOI found that the Democratic mayor misused police resources by directing members of his Executive Protection Unit (EPU) to help move his daughter, Chiara de Blasio, out of her apartment in Brooklyn in 2018. NYPD personnel helped carry furniture and an NYPD sprinter van carried her belongings to Gracie Mansion, which is the official residence of the mayor of New York City located in Manhattan.
FBI RAIDS NYC POLICE SERGEANTS' UNION HEADQUARTERS
EPU detectives also drove the mayor’s son, Dante de Blasio, to or from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, on multiple occasions without either the mayor or his wife and first lady Chirlane McCray present. It was also common practice for the EPU to drive Dante de Blasio to locations around New York City without his father or mother, typically at the direction of EPU superiors.
"Although it is the position of the NYPD Intelligence Bureau that both de Blasio children should have full-time protection, both children declined an assigned detail as adults," the 49-page report says.
DOI also determined that the City of New York expended $319,794 for the members of Mayor de Blasio’s security detail to travel during his presidential campaign trips. The mayor has still not reimbursed the city for those funds either personally or through his campaign. The report also says that during these campaign trips, EPU members occasionally transported de Blasio’s campaign staffers with the mayor.
Both reflect a use of NYPD resources for political purposes, according to the DOI.
For approximately one year, the security detail has been conducting frequent security checks at houses owned by the mayor in Brooklyn, where neither he nor his family members reside. The NYPD inspector in charge of the first family’s security detail "actively obstructed and sought to thwart this investigation, frustrating DOI’s efforts to learn the full facts regarding these allegations," the report says.
The mayor’s office told Fox News Digital that the DOI report ignores "the very real threat assessment and concern" against the mayor and his family – specifically citing the fact that Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) President Ed Mullins, who is under criminal investigation, "tweeted out the Mayor’s daughter’s personal information last June."
Mullins shared Chiara de Blasio’s June 2020 arrest report on Twitter after the mayor’s 25-year-old daughter was taken into custody as violent demonstrations swept the city following George Floyd’s death. The mayor’s office on Thursday also said the "January 6 insurrection at the Capital [sic] underscores real and present danger, especially for elected officials who publicly opposed Trump."
"Intelligence and security experts should decide how to keep the mayor and his family safe, not civilian investigators," the mayor’s office told Fox News Digital via email. "This unprofessional report purports to do the NYPD’s job for them, but with none of the relevant expertise – and without even interviewing the official who heads intelligence for the City. As a result, we are left with an inaccurate report, based on illegitimate assumptions and a naïve view of the complex security challenges facing elected officials today."
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The FBI conducted raids at the Manhattan headquarters for the Sergeants Benevolent Association and at the Long Island home of Mullins, the union’s president, earlier in the week. FBI New York has declined to comment on the subject matter of the federal investigation.
Mullins has been a staunch critic of the de Blasio administration and was facing disciplinary action for comments made on Twitter, including the publication of de Blasio’s daughter’s arrest report.
