Council’s 95G Legal ‘Guardian’
March 24, 2008
Speaker Christine Quinn has quietly turned to a “white-shoe” Manhattan law firm for advice and representation in connection with a federal and local probe of the City Council’s inner workings, The Post has learned.
The $95,000 deal made with Sullivan & Cromwell last October was so hush-hush that few Quinn colleagues knew anything about it or the investigation.
Feds who subpoenaed Councilman Kendall Stewart in January seemed interested in the finances of some Brooklyn not-for-profits to which he and other lawmakers steered grants.
But Stewart told The Post he was not the target.
“They just wanted to know that we gave some of those groups money, and they wanted to see if I [or] my staff was benefiting from them,” Stewart said.
The council’s two top Finance Department staffers, who oversaw grant programs, resigned within the last few months.
One council insider described Quinn as worried enough to hire “a white-shoe law firm to review documents for $95,000.”
The council’s Standards and Ethics Committee recently looked into allegations of office misuse by two members. The panel couldn’t substantiate the allegations and concluded they were triggered by political foes.
The city’s Department of Investigation declined to comment.
Source: NY Post
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