At the same time he was on trial for stealing more than $1 million from Mayor Bloomberg, political consultant John Haggerty was also using the mayor’s money to settle old political scores in Queens, according to campaign records.
Filings at the state Board of Elections show Haggerty’s 28th Assembly District Republican Committee shelled out $16,636 over the last six months to back candidates for party positions against arch-rival Phil Ragusa, the Queens Republican leader.
That’s not a lot of money by today’s campaign standards — except that it originally belonged to Bloomberg, who later turned up as the star prosecution witness in Haggerty’s grand larceny trial.
Haggerty was convicted in October of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars funneled by the mayor to the state Independence Party in 2009 for what was supposed to be a poll-watching operation. If he isn’t successful in an appeal, he’s facing a prison sentence of one-and-a-third years to four years.
But before Haggerty’s shady activities were exposed by The Post in early 2010, he was a key player in the mayor’s re-election effort and held in high regard by Bloomberg’s campaign team.
Days after he won a third term, the mayor rewarded Haggerty with $120,000 to set up his own political committee out of his home in Forest Hills.
Most of the money sat there until last year, when Haggerty and his allies began moving to topple Ragusa by running their own candidates for district leader positions.
“We couldn’t confirm it, but we had an idea (that Haggerty was using the mayor’s money),” Ragusa said. “He was sending out notices, paying fees. It had to come from someplace. We didn’t know for sure because he didn’t file the disclosure statement.”
Haggerty skipped filing the required July 2011 financial disclosure filing. He finally filed it this month, along with the January 2012 form.
They provided evidence of meticulous record keeping down to the dollar — literally.
On Aug. 12, a single dollar was paid out from the committee’s account as reimbursement for parking at a meter.
A Sept. 19 visit to White Castle drained $6.01 for “food for vols,” meaning volunteers.
A similar visit to McDonalds cost the campaign $3.27 on Oct. 21.
The largest payments went to two well-known election lawyers, Joshua Ehrlich ($2,000) and Marty Connor ($1,500).
The account still had $82,345 left as of mid-January.
As it turns out, Bloomberg is funding both sides of the bitter fight over control of the Queens GOP.
Records show the mayor delivered $50,000 to the party in 2009, while he was grappling to secure the Republican line for his third-term run, and another $30,000 in 2010.
Dennis Vacco, one of Haggerty’s lawyers, said he didn’t know anything about the committee account.
The mayor’s office declined comment.