Judicial Watch Sues for Details on Bloomberg's Gun Control Group

On October 10, Judicial Watch announced it filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) lawsuit with the Supreme Court of New York for information on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun control group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG).

The FOIL lawsuit was filed October 4 requesting “that the Mayor’s office be required to produce records of a January 9, 2013, meeting attended by MAIG representatives, [Vice President] Biden, and Attorney General Eric Holder.”

Judicial Watch also seeks specific records pertinent to a January 15, 2013, FOIL request which Bloomberg ignored.

These pertinent records include, but are not limited to:

Any and all records of communication between Bloomberg and/or Chief Advisor to the Mayor for Policy and Strategic Planning John Feinblatt and Mr. Mark Glaze, Director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns and a Principal at The Raben Group, LLC between December 14, 2012 and January 22, 2013.

Any and all records of communication between Mayor Bloomberg and/or any official, employee, or representative of the Office of the Mayor and Vice President Joe Biden and/or any official, employee, or representative of the Office of the Vice President of the United States.

Although Bloomberg has refused to cooperate with the FOIL request to date, Judicial Watch has uncovered a money trail that includes expenditures of “$1,280,000 on federal lobbyists” since 2008. This figure “excludes $580,000 in in-house lobbying expenses for the organization in 2013.”

JW has also been able to ascertain how MAIG uses grant funding to “pay for regional coordinators to be employed in mayors’ offices throughout the country.”

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.