Adams makes controversial pick for city’s top atty
/
Randy Mastro, a former top aide and deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani, was nominated by Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday to serve as the city’s next corporation counsel. His nomination will likely face serious pushback from the City Council, which has the power to reject him. File photo by Caroline Willis/Mayoral Photo Office
By Jacob Kaye
After months of anticipation, Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday nominated Randy Mastro to serve as the city’s top attorney, likely setting up yet another battle between the mayor and the City Council, whose members have already voiced their opposition to the nomination of the longtime and controversial legal figure.
Though he’s been expected to tap Mastro to serve as the city’s corporation counsel since April, Adams waited until Tuesday to officially nominate the controversial attorney. The nomination came a day before Adams’ deadline to recommend someone for the post, which was left vacant in May when former judge Sylvia Hinds-Radix stepped down from the role amid reported clashes with the Adams administration.
Mastro, whose lengthy legal career includes stints in the office of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and as former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s chief of staff, may face some difficulties assuming the position he was recommended for this week. He now needs approval from the City Council, which will hold a hearing on his nomination at some point in the next month or so. Individual councilmembers and council leadership expressed skepticism about – and, in some cases, outright opposed – the idea of Mastro’s nomination when it first began floating around in the spring.
Nonetheless, Adams remained confident in his pick for corporation counsel on Tuesday.
“I am excited to announce Randy Mastro as the City of New York’s next corporation counsel,” the mayor said in a statement. “Randy is among the best known and most respected litigators in the nation and has helped shape the legal world through his extensive body of work.”
In a statement, Mastro said he was “humbled and honored to have this opportunity to return to city government.”
“I am a passionate advocate in the courtroom and a proud New Yorker who loves this city,” said Mastro. “So, when presented with this chance of a lifetime to use my legal skills to harness the power of government to do good and improve New Yorkers' lives, I am answering the call.”
As the city’s top attorney, Mastro – if confirmed by a majority of the council – would lead the city’s Law Department, which represents not only the mayor, but the City Council and city employees in civil litigation.
If appointed, Mastro would begin the job as a number of high-profile legal cases surround the mayor and his administration.
Though he has not been accused of committing any wrongdoing, Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign is the subject of a federal investigation that has led to the searching of a number of his aides’ homes.
Mastro would also start the job as the mayor and City Council battle over various laws and policies in the courts.
The mayor is currently being sued for his administration’s alleged failure to enact an expansion of the city’s housing voucher program passed by the Council last year.
And, as of this weekend, the mayor will likely soon face a new lawsuit over his administration’s refusal to enact a ban on solitary confinement passed by the council in December. On Saturday, just one day before the law’s effective date, the mayor passed an executive order to suspend key elements of the law Adams claims will put both detainees and officers on Rikers Island in harm's way. Earlier this month, the council passed a resolution allowing City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to defend the law in court, should it be necessary.
But during an interview with PIX11 on Tuesday, Mastro, who currently serves as chair of the good government group Citizens Union, pushed aside concern from the council that his nomination was tied to hopes that he’d act as the mayor’s legal bulldog.
“I may be a bear in the courtroom but I’m a teddy bear in real life,” Mastro said, adding that he wouldn’t represent Adams in the federal investigation.
“The corporation counsel represents the city as a whole,” he said. “It’s not the mayor’s lawyer, it’s not any one official’s lawyer, it’s representing the entire city government. I think the mayor appreciates that, I think the speaker appreciates that. I certainly do.”
Whether or not the council wants Mastro representing them is another question entirely.
Though the council was a little more muted in its response to Mastro’s nomination on Tuesday, it’s been vocal about its opposition in the past.
“As the top attorney for New York City, the Corporation Counsel has the special responsibility of representing all of City government, which includes its agencies and all elected officials,” Council spokesperson Julia Agos said on Tuesday. “The person in this role must have the faith of all city officials and the talented attorneys in the Law Department.”
In April, shortly after rumors of Mastro’s nomination began to swirl, the City Council’s 34-member Black, Latino and Asian Caucus said in a statement that they would strongly oppose his appointment, citing several of his past cases and clients.
After serving in the Giuliani administration, Mastro took on a number of controversial cases.
He served as an attorney to former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and conducted an internal review of the “Bridgegate” scandal, during which Christie’s administration was accused of colluding to create traffic troubles in Fort Lee by closing the toll area in front of the upper level of the George Washington Bridge in an attempt to wound a political foe.
Mastro also represented Chevron on behalf of law firm Gibson Dunn, where he formerly worked. The attorney helped get Chevron off the hook for a $9 billion judgment by the Ecuadorian government in an historic pollution case. He later represented the company as they pursued a RICO case against Steven Donziger, the attorney who originally brought the suit against Chevron. After spending nearly three years under house arrest as a result of the case, Donziger was disbarred in New York State.
Mastro has also represented a number of clients that have brought cases against the city, including the state of New Jersey in its suit over the state’s now-delayed plan to implement congestion pricing in Manhattan.
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who serves as a non-voting member of the City Council, said in a statement that Mastro’s “record…speak[s] for itself, and what it says should cause New Yorkers great concern.”
After officially receiving the nomination, the council will begin to formally consider Mastro. His appointment will be heard in committee before heading for a vote before the full Council. A public hearing will also be held prior to the full vote.
Though the council already had the power to approve or reject a mayor’s corporation counsel nominee, it recently has made efforts to expand the number of mayoral appointees it gets to give its say on through its advise-and-consent bill.
However the bill – which, as a change to the city’s charter, would need to be approved by voters at the ballot box – was likely dead on arrival after the mayor created a Charter Revision Commission to make recommendations to alter the city charter. Any recommendations from the commission would trump recommendations from the council on the ballot.
Williams said that the fight over the charter revisions – and more broadly the power struggle between the city’s executive and its legislature – were at the heart of Mastro’s nomination.
“Both the Council and our office made these concerns [over Mastro’s record] clear for months, and the administration stubbornly insisted upon this nomination,” the public advocate said. “Despite the mayor’s recent power grab through charter revision, the Council still has to vote on this appointment, and I hope they use that power to reject it."
