TPM Shag Fund Timeline

It’s not easy keeping track of Rudy Giuliani’s shag-related expenditures of taxpayer money while mayor of New York. For one thing, it’s impossible to get a total of the amount spent guarding the mayor’s then-girlfriend. And the available records are spotty at best. But we gave it the ol’ TPM try. So here, without further ado, is our timeline.

5/99 — Judith Nathan and Giuliani meet at Club Macanudo, a cigar bar on the Upper East Side.

7/3/99 — NYPD Officers charge the city for gas to “accompany the mayor to Southampton.”

7/31/99 — Four officers accompanying Giuliani stay at the Atlantic Utopia Lifestyle Inn in Southampton for $1,016. Giuliani had no events in the area that day.

8/20/99 — Giuliani visits Southampton, where Nathan has a condo. He brings along his aide Manny Papir, and Manny charges the city for a room at the Southampton Inn for $331.16. That same night, Giuliani’s four man security detail charged $1,704.43 at the same inn. Giuliani had a fundraiser on the 21st.

Early 2000 — NYPD officers start escorting Nathan around. Giuliani aides say that the protection at the time was “sporadic and did not include a full-time, round-the-clock detail.” They cited previously undisclosed “threats” as the reason. But “former neighbors of Nathan’s, as well as a law enforcement source, describe a full-scale valet service at Nathan’s beck and call….”

4/08/00 — NYPD officers charge the city for gas a half-hour from Nathan’s hometown of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where her parents live. It’s unclear who they were accompanying.

5/10/2000 — Giuliani announces that he will be separating from his wife, Donna Hanover. Giuliani tells the press that he and Nathan are “very good friends.”

5/13/00 — The New York Post reports that Giuliani’s regular weekend visits to the Hamptons cost taxpayers at least $3,000 a day for his detail of NYPD detectives.

7/29/00 — Three officers charge the city for gas and one night at The Inn at Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor in order to “advance/accompany the mayor to Southampton.”

8/20/00 – Giuliani files for divorce.

1/12/01 — The Post reports that two NYPD detectives have been assigned to guard Nathan from 7 AM to 7 PM, seven days a week. The Post explained, “Her security detail was upped from one to two detectives about two weeks ago after a New Yorker recognized her on the street, walked up to her and casually said, ‘Hey, I know you. You’re the mayor’s girlfriend.'” Since the detectives earned overtime for the gig, the cost to taxpayers was estimated at $200,000 per year. The following day, Giuliani responded angrily, saying that the media should be “ashamed” and that if “you had any concern for decency, or people’s safety, you’d leave it alone.” You can see video of that here.

Then-NYPD chief Bernie Kerik said that the threat which had triggered the need for the detail had been more menacing than the Post described. Police officials told The New York Times that a man had identified Nathan by name, “made several threatening comments to her, then followed her,” and then fled after she went into a store. Kerik wouldn’t specify how much the detectives guarding Nathan are paid, only saying, “You can’t put money figures on security. Security is security.”

Neither Giuliani nor Kerik disclosed that detectives had in fact been accompanying Nathan for approximately a year.

6/01 – The New York Post reports that Nathan’s detail, temporarily ended after it was exposed by the Post early that year, has once again been reinstated — even as the security detail for Giuliani’s estranged wife had been scaled back. The piece was accompanied by a picture of a detective escorting Nathan while she walked her dog.

The Daily News later reports that during this time, “it was not uncommon to see Nathan being chauffeured around the city in an undercover Dodge with two detectives, who sometimes even helped to walk her dog.”

8/3/01 – Detectives charge the city $1,371 for a stay at Southampton’s Village Latch Inn.

10/20/01 — NYPD cops accompany Nathan to her parents’ home again in Pennsylvania. They charge the city for gas.

12/01 — NYPD cops again accompany Nathan to her parents’ Pennsylvania home. More gas.

1/1/02 — Giuliani steps down as mayor.

7/10/02 – Giuliani’s divorce with Hanover is finalized.

Andrew Berger provided research for this post.