Disgraced GOP big John Haggerty plans to fight charges he stole $1.1 million from Mayor Bloomberg by insisting the loot was fair pay for election security services, his lawyers said yesterday.
“This was his company’s compensation” for more than three months of “ballot security” work, the lawyer, Dennis Vacco, insisted after Haggerty came to court for his first appearance since last month’s indictment.
The $1.1 million began as a mayoral campaign contribution into the housekeeping accounts of the state Independence Party, which at that point could do with the money as it wished, including compensating Haggerty, Vacco said, tipping his hand early to defense motions he said he plans to file by mid-September.
Manhattan prosecutors contended in busting the veteran Republican operative last month that Haggerty concocted a $1.1 million phantom Election Day poll-watching operation to swindle the money from mayor.
Haggerty used the money to buy out his brother’s share in a $1.8 million mansion in Forest Hills, Queens, left to them by their father, prosecutors say. Haggerty is due back in court in October.