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Mayor Adams' team asked campaign watchdog for more time — citing federal investigation
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Sep 12, 2024
Modified Sep 12, 2024
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Caroline Rubinstein-Willis/Mayoral Photography Office
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Sep 12, 2024
Modified Sep 12, 2024
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Mayor Eric Adams’ team wrote in a letter to the city’s campaign finance watchdog that the campaign needed more time to respond to questions about apparent sloppy recordkeeping because its lawyer was too busy dealing with a federal inquiry.
The Campaign Finance Board obliged multiple requests from campaign attorney Vito Pitta to extend deadlines to respond to a draft audit of Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign. The 900-page audit, which Gothamist exclusively revealed, sought additional documentation from the campaign for $2.3 million in expenses.
Pitta justified his request for an extension in part by noting the campaign had been in frequent communication with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York — which is investigating Adams' campaign — making it difficult for the campaign to meet the response deadline.
“Those interactions have consumed significant time and attention of both counsel and other 2021 campaign representatives that are also necessary to complete the response,” Pitta wrote in an email to the Campaign Finance Board.
The emails, which Gothamist obtained via a Freedom of Information request, also show Pitta and fellow Adams campaign lawyer Ardian Tagani objecting to the fulfillment of a previous public records request.
Pitta argued that the draft audit should have been subject to a “law enforcement exemption,” which allows government agencies to withhold documentation involved in an ongoing investigation, because Campaign Finance Board audits can result in penalties. Joseph Gallagher, the board's general counsel, told Pitta over email that the exemption did not apply to the board’s standard audit process.
The email exchanges began on July 31, 2024, the day the campaign’s response to the draft audit was due and Gothamist broke the story of the Campaign Finance Board's findings. At the time, Tagani asked the board for a monthlong extension.
The board granted the campaign an extension to Aug. 15. A week before the new deadline, the board's director of candidate services, Hannah Egerton, sent the Adams campaign a reminder email noting “this will be the last extension granted to the campaign.”
Pitta took issue with this deadline.
“Can you please offer some explanation as to the imposition of a final deadline two weeks following August 15?” he wrote. Calling the agency’s decision “unusual and prejudicial,” he said the Campaign Finance Board had offered longer extensions to other campaigns.
He went on to criticize the board for taking 13 months to issue the draft audit to the campaign. Among Adams’ top competitors in the 2021 mayoral race, Maya Wiley, Kathryn Garcia and Scott Stringer received their draft audits months earlier.
Timothy Hunter, a spokesperson for the Campaign Finance Board, declined to comment on the timing of the Adams draft audit.
“The campaign continues to work diligently on its response to the draft audit report to resolve all questions raised by the CFB,” Pitta wrote in a statement to Gothamist.
The campaign already had a track record of failing to respond to the board’s questions throughout its 2021 campaign, as Gothamist previously reported.
In addition to calling the Campaign Finance Board’s deadlines unreasonable, Pitta complained about the agency releasing a copy of the draft audit in response to a Freedom of Information request.
“I would be remiss if I did not mention that the CFB’s decision to release a copy of the campaign’s DAR in response to a FOIL request without even the courtesy of informing the campaign,” Pitta wrote, calling it, “extraordinarily concerning.”
In subsequent emails, Pitta again asked for more time, seeking a 60-day and then a 90-day extension to respond to the draft audit. He pointed again to the ongoing investigation by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, as well as reports that the office had served the campaign with a subpoena.
“The ongoing investigation and, in particular, the recent issuance of a subpoena presents an ‘unforeseeable extenuating circumstance’ for the committee, as significant time, attention, resources, staff, etc. are being devoted to cooperating with the USAO’s investigation,” Pitta wrote on Aug. 29, 2024, asking for another 90-day extension.
The following day, the Campaign Finance Board’s Director of Auditing Danielle Willemin granted the extension. The new deadline is Nov. 29, 2024, roughly two weeks before the board is set to announce the first round of public payments for qualifying candidates in the 2025 election cycle. Under the rules, the first $250 that a New York City resident donates to a qualifying campaign garners a generous 8-to-1 match.
Adams' 2025 campaign could receive more public dollars through matching funds — before the audit of his 2021 campaign is complete.
Update: This story has been updated with a statement from Vito Pitta.
Tagged
campaign finance
new york city
Politics
eric adams
elections
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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