Rudy Giuliani dirt hits Web
BY DAVID SALTONSTALL
DAILY NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
Friday, September 26th 2008, 11:56 PM
Russell Harding Sipkin/News
Russell Harding
A new web site that promises to spill the beans on Rudy Giuliani's secrets revealed one sure thing Friday: New Yorkers are still curious about their former mayor.
That's one conclusion to be drawn from all the comments - some supportive of Giuliani, many not - left Friday at
www.rudyveritas.com, a salacious new site created by onetime Giuliani housing czar Russell Harding.
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Harding is not exactly an unimpeachable source: He pleaded guilty in 2003 to embezzling city funds and possessing child porn after being accused of spending some $400,000 in Housing Preservation and Development Corp. funds - for a car, fancy vacations, spa treatments, parties and more.
Out of jail since May, Harding has promised to make the new Web site a kind of rolling tell-all, a clearinghouse for all things Rudy - the good, the bad and the ugly.
"I can't promise much as the weeks go forward except this: I will speak the 100% unvarnished truth," Harding wrote.
"Some of the pieces I will post will be of interest mainly to New Yorkers. Some will be blockbusters," he added enticingly.
Visitors to the site Friday had special requests for Harding, the son of former Liberal Party boss Ray Harding, a loyal Giuliani ally.
Some wanted the inside dope on city contracting under Giuliani; others requested information on longstanding allegations that FDNY bunker gear had caused unnecessary injuries. Still others sought to learn more about Giuliani's relationship with his children.
"As a New Yorker, this makes for great theater," gushed one reader.
For now, Harding has limited his revelations to one about Judith Giuliani. He says that as housing chief he was ordered by City Hall to find a cut-rate apartment on the upper East Side for the mayor's then- girlfriend.
Aides to the Giulianis denied that any favors were done, and insist that Mrs. Giuliani paid "mid-market rent" for the pad (though they were unable to immediately provide any cancelled checks).
Giuliani aides also released a letter that Harding sent last August - back when Giuliani was a front-running Republican contender for President - that they say shows the former housing chief to be a shakedown artist.
Harding, who was still in prison, wrote Giuliani adviser Tony Carbonetti that he passed up lucrative deals for a tell-all book on Giuliani and his inner circle.
"Do you or any of my old friends have any plans to help me close the yawning financial gap over the last four years?" Harding asked. "My expenses over the coming months I expect to be truly enormous."
Carbonetti never wrote back.
dsaltonstall@nydailynews.comOf course, a cut-rate apartment does not compare with Tony Rezko funding Obama's mansion in Hyde Park...
