Boston Mayor Michelle Wu defended the whopping $650,000 authorized invoice town paid to assist her put together for a Congressional listening to on sanctuary cities, saying it was obligatory amid threats to place her in jail and lower the Hub’s federal funding.
Wu stated she would have moderately not needed to spend the taxpayer funds, however wanted authorized illustration for the “high-stakes” Washington, D.C. listening to, the place a number of Home Republicans stated they had been contemplating referring the 4 collaborating sanctuary mayors to the Division of Justice for a probe and felony costs.
“It is money that I very much wish we did not have to spend at all, and time from my staff and team that could have gone to much better, much more important things,” Wu stated Tuesday on GBH’s Boston Public Radio. “But the stakes are high and we’re still continuing with the document production that has been formally requested.
“When there were threats to put me in jail, to take away funding, I needed to make sure that I was doing everything possible to represent our city well, to represent the policies with complete accuracy,” Wu stated, “and having legal representation was a necessary part of that.”
Of the threats of being referred to the Division of Justice for felony prosecution, Wu stated, “We follow the laws in Boston.”
Wu’s workplace beforehand stated the mayor “expects to pay” as much as $650,000 in metropolis funds to organize for final week’s Congressional listening to, the place she was grilled alongside mayors from Chicago, Denver and New York Metropolis as a part of the GOP-led committee’s probe into sanctuary cities and their impression on public security.
Wu employed the legislation agency of Cahill Gordon & Reindell, with a D.C. lawyer main a “team” that payments $950 an hour, a value that will probably be paid by metropolis taxpayers.
The associated fee covers authorized work associated to the March 5 listening to, committee investigation and manufacturing of associated paperwork, the mayor’s workplace stated final week.
Prep classes for the listening to included employees from the Mayor’s Workplace, Boston Police and different senior advisors and leaders from the Cupboard, in addition to an exterior legislation agency, the mayor’s workplace has stated.
The mayor additionally introduced alongside a dozen employees members to D.C., at a further value of $8,500, Wu’s workplace stated.
The hefty authorized invoice generated criticism on-line and from Wu’s foremost opponent to this point within the mayoral race, Josh Kraft.
“Mayor Wu said she’s going to DC to defend the city, and I support this. My question is do we need to spend $650,000 of taxpayer funds on a show trial hearing?” Kraft stated final week.
Apart from defending the authorized invoice, Wu spoke at size about final week’s Congressional listening to throughout her month-to-month radio look, saying that the threats to chop federal funding for sanctuary cities like Boston are “extremely serious.”
“As much as it can seem like a show or production when you’re watching it, Congress has power and people who are in the federal government have real power to enact consequences,” Wu stated, “whether that’s on federal funding or whether that is to follow through with some of the threats around prosecution of individual people or the referral to the Department of Justice.
“So we are going to continue to provide the information the committee was seeking,” the mayor added. “A lot of this was not just the presence at the hearing, but documents that they requested about city policies and different things like that.”
President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, who chaired final week’s Congressional oversight committee listening to, are amongst these making such threats.
Comer stated after final week’s listening to that “federal funding is at risk” for the mayors who testified, if “they continue to obstruct” the deportation of “criminal illegals.” He additionally stated the committee’s function is to analyze, and that he would go away the prospect of felony costs as much as the Division of Justice.
Boston’s sanctuary standing is enshrined within the Belief Act, a 2014 native legislation that prohibits metropolis police and different departments from cooperating with federal authorities on civil immigration detainers.
Finally week’s listening to, Wu stated Boston Police implement felony warrants, no matter immigration standing, and defended Boston’s public security file, citing final 12 months’s low murder price, the bottom in roughly 70 years, as proof that it’s the “safest major city” within the nation.
She additionally took a swipe on the federal administration for spreading worry and undermining police work, saying that the “laws on our books promote the kind of community trust that keeps us all safe.”
“It does feel like much, this design to silence people, to say if you just keep your mouth shut or quietly change your policies, then if you do what we want and satisfy the political winds right now, then maybe you’ll have a chance of surviving better,” Wu stated on Tuesday.
“But that is not an alternative that, one, is acceptable for our community members, and two, that is how you can live for four years,” the mayor stated. “So we follow the laws in Boston. We’re very clear about that, and we tell the truth about what we do, why we do it, and who we do it for.”
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