COX: CUOMO, DE BLASIO POLITICAL MANEUVERS PUTTING NATIONAL SECURITY AT RISK – Destruction of IDNYC Records is Obstruction of Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jessica Proud (914) 438-5325

FROM: New York State Republican Committee

315 State St, Albany , NY 12210 – (518) 462-2601 – nygop.org

COX: CUOMO, DE BLASIO POLITICAL MANEUVERS PUTTING

NATIONAL SECURITY AT RISK

Destruction of IDNYC Records is Obstruction of Justice

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Cuomo’s Directive Opening Door to Money Laundering, Fraud

New York, NY–January 27th…Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio’s political maneuvers to destroy records used to obtain New York City identification cards are putting national security at risk and opening the door to money laundering and fraud today charged New York Republican Chairman Ed Cox.

Chairman Cox voiced support for the IDNYC lawsuit brought by Assemblyman Ron Castorina, Jr. and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis preventing Mayor de Blasio and his Administration from destroying background data essential to maintaining the integrity of New York City’s municipal identification program. The state lawmakers challenged the program after Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo issued an opinion encouraging New York State chartered banks to accept the IDNYC card as primary identification to obtain financial services.

After President Trump’s election in November, city leaders including, Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Mark-Viverito, proclaimed their intentions to defy federal law and destroy supporting documentation for nearly 1,000,000 identification cards issued through the IDNYC program relying on suspect language contained in the statute.

The City ignored all requests from the lawmakers to reach a compromise solution and, instead, Speaker Mark-Viverito challenged the GOP to sue to protect the safety of New Yorkers. Assembly Member Castorina says, "The City of New York left Nicole and I with no other choice but to seek court intervention."

Chairman Ed Cox said, "Once again Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio are playing politics, but this time it’s at the expense of our national security. We learned tough lessons from 9/11 and one of them is that those seeking to do us harm used our system against us. Whether it’s destroying background records or allowing our banks to accept dubious, unvetted identification, it’s unfathomable why the Governor and Mayor wouldn’t exercise the utmost vigilance in protecting our national security. This is also just another sad example of their attempts to use the President as a political foil to garner national attention."

"This identification program has security flaws to begin with," said Assemblyman Castorina. "But now Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio are taking it to another level by attempting to erase any trace of these individuals in the system and opening up our banking system to potential criminal activity. Common sense has been thrown out the window in favor of political pandering."

Assembly Member Malliotakis echoed these sentiments saying, "After multiple hearings on the matter, we believe the facts are clear. The IDNYC plan to destroy records is misguided, and risks stifling the ability of our law enforcement personnel to do their jobs."

Justice Minardo directed the parties to file their final submissions in the IDNYC litigation on February 1, 2017. A decision is expected shortly after the final submission.