Trippi failed to disclose that Maloney was a client

The New York Observer’s Jason Horowitz does some digging and finds something not quite adding up on the Joe Trippi-Carolyn Maloney relationship:

Back on June 24, Democratic consultant Joe Trippi blogged on the Huffington Post about how polls showed Representative Carolyn Maloney would make a much better, and more viable, candidate for U.S. Senator than Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and said that he hoped she “does decide to enter the race.”

Trippi later added the following update to his post:

“Full disclosure, as many of you know, I have been publicly supportive of Carolyn Maloney beyond this one post and I have discussed her potential candidacy with her personally. If she runs – which I hope she does since she’d be a great Senator – I’d be honored to work on her campaign.”

It was a disclosure, but not quite a full one. According to Maloney’s campaign filing, Trippi was already on her payroll. Records show that Maloney had cut Trippi’s firm, Joe Trippi & Associates, a check for $10,500 on June 5.

When I spoke to Trippi on June 7, after a report in City Hall News suggesting he had been hired by Maloney, Trippi told me that he was “in talks” with Maloney about going to work for her as her chief campaign strategist.

On July 1, his firm confirmed it was officially getting paid.

The FEC link Horowitz used is down. I have replaced it with Maloney’s second-quarter filing, which shows a payment of $10,000 (rather than $10,500) to “Joe Trppi & Associates” — an apparent misspelling on the part of Maloney’s campaign. The expenditure is listed as being for a “campaign consultant.”

Reached Thursday afternoon, Trippi said he failed to disclose the relationship, but he emphasized that it had nothing to do with a potential Senate campaign — one that still doesn’t exist.

“I did not disclose that I was handling press calls to say that she wasn’t running” for Senate, he said. “It was a one-month contract to handle press inquiries that were inapproporiate for a house office to respond to.”

Update: Trippi follows up to emphasize that he is a Democratic strategist, not a journalist, and that it was his honest belief that Maloney should run for Senate.

“What I resent is the implication that the only reason I said it is because I’m being paid,” he said.