NEW YORK -- A political consultant stole more than $1 million from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg because he wanted to buy his father's house, a prosecutor said Monday.
Republican consultant John Haggerty didn't have the money to pay for the house, but he did have "access to one of the largest mayoral campaigns this city has ever seen. ... And with it, the mayor's money," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Brian Weinberg told jurors as Haggerty's trial opened.
Prosecutors say Haggerty got Bloomberg to underwrite an elaborate 2009 poll-watching effort run by the state Independence Party but then mounted only a meager operation and used most of the money instead to buy the house. Haggerty says he did the job he was paid for and didn't do anything illegal.
Bloomberg, an independent, was running for re-election and was the Independence Party's top candidate.
Defense lawyer Raymond Castello said the campaign used Haggerty as a scapegoat after questions arose on whether the campaign had followed campaign-finance law.
Castello added that Bloomberg committed campaign fraud and that it was the Mayor's team who broke campaign finance laws.
He said the mayor donated over $1 million to the Independence Party in order to maintain a distance from what could be seen as a questionable practice.
"This case is about winning at all costs," Castello said. "That's what Michael Bloomberg is all about."
Bloomberg is expected to testify in the trial.
Prosecutors say Haggerty got Bloomberg to underwrite an elaborate 2009 poll-watching effort run by the state Independence Party but then mounted only a meager operation and used most of the money instead to buy the house. Haggerty says he did the job he was paid for and didn't do anything illegal.
Bloomberg, an independent, was running for re-election and was the Independence Party's top candidate.
Defense lawyer Raymond Castello said the campaign used Haggerty as a scapegoat after questions arose on whether the campaign had followed campaign-finance law.
He said the mayor donated over $1 million to the Independence Party in order to maintain a distance from what could be seen as a questionable practice.
"This case is about winning at all costs," Castello said. "That's what Michael Bloomberg is all about."
Bloomberg is expected to testify in the trial.