Ben Smith at Politico.com has a blockbuster now. Go right now and read his current post. Smith's follow up has Giuliani denials and statements that payments were not improper. But check updates after the jump.

There, Smith shows how then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani billed obscure NYC agencies for trips to -- what to me appears to be -- Long Island overnights with then-lover wife-number-three-to-be Judith Nathan. The tricky way in which the billing was carried out and the fact that Mayor G. had no NYC business to carry out in Southampton, suggest to me that Mr Giuliani used public resources for private purposes. Did that happen in this case?

Smith's done some remarkable reporting. NY Times' William Rashbaum's story, here, points out that security expenses are routinely billed through NYPD and that Mr. Giuliani would not personally have handled the billing. (There are reasons for thinking this may not be the case. Many report Mr. Giuliani tried to completely control of both NYPD and his personal affairs. The billing here concerned both.) If normal procedures were followed, did NYPD also get bills for these trips? Talk Left's Post is here. Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, quoted by Sam Stein on HuffPost says the Giuliani billing was "improper."

UPDATES: At Talk Left, Big Tent Democrat puts together Giuliani’s use of police to drive his love interest, Ms. Nathan, with the charges leveled against Alan Hevesi (using a state employee to chauffeur his wife) and wonders if that adds up the a Giuliani felony. (At The Albany Project, Phillip Anderson has a similar post here ) I thought then and still think the charges against Hevesi were overstated -- but sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Ben Smith has posted Comptroller William Thompson's 2002 letter to Michael Bloomberg alerting him to the misspending issue. I think the Giuliani claim that NYPD reimbursed the agencies cannot be true. If it were, the reimbursement should have shown up in the Thompson audit, but didn't. Stu Loesser in the Bloomberg Press office is cited as the source. When was this money repaid to the agencies? It cannot have been prior to 2002 when Comptroller Thompson wrote his letter to Mayor Bloomberg (because the letter would have mentioned the repayment).

Giuliani says he's the victim of a "hit". He also claims NYPD expenses were reimbursed by that agency.

When I checked, 80% of Newsday online poll responders thought the charges were seriously damaging . And you know how accurate on-line polls are.

Joseph Lhota, a Giuliani Deputy Mayor withdrew his claims that the bizarre billing practices had been carried out under former Mayors when faced with specific denials from Koch & Dinkins officials, including NYPD Commish Ray Kelly

Much of the misdirected money was bled from an agency which funded lawyers for poor people. Those lawyers protest the fund diversion here .

Kossacks have joined in with three useful additions:

DemfromCT found this NY Post story where NYC also paid for a Mayoral aide's Southampton overnights. So this wasn't just about security.

RedWind reports that (On Brian Lerer) Ben Smith said some of these travel expenses were campaign-related to Giuliani's short-lived Senate run against Hillary.

On a slightly different subject, Kagro X reports that Judith Nathan "security" NYPD car and driver may have been used to chauffeur her friends and family even without her being present.

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