In McLaughlin Probe: CLC Official Denies He Got Subpoena

In McLaughlin Probe
CLC Official Denies He Got Subpoena

By HOWARD MEGDAL

New York City AFL-CIO Central Labor Council Secretary Ted H. Jacobsen flatly denied a New York Post report alleging that he had been subpoenaed in the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe of CLC President Brian M. McLaughlin.

TED JACOBSEN: Denies FBI targeted him. "I was not on the search warrant," Mr. Jacobsen said in a March 22 e-mail about the story, which ran five days earlier. "I never received a subpoena. I am not under investigation. This Council has cooperated fully in its investigation."

Watt: 'Not Targeted'

Another CLC official, Ed Watt, who is the secretary-treasurer of Transport Workers' Union Local 100, said that neither he nor anyone else in the organization other than Mr. McLaughlin had been subpoenaed by the FBI.

"They'd give me a f-----medal if they knew what I did around here," he said in a March 21 phone interview.

The CLC headquarters on West 15th St., as well as Mr. McLaughlin's Queens Assembly office, were raided by the FBI March 2 in connection with an investigation into a possible bid-rigging scheme involving the city's streetlight contracts.

Since the raid, the CLC has taken steps to ensure that it operates smoothly during the probe, with Director of Public Policy Ed Ott assuming many functions previously handled by Mr. McLaughlin.

State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes ran the executive board meeting March 16 for the part dealing with the probe; Mr. McLaughlin and others were asked to leave the room during that discussion. The CLC leader then returned and ran the duration of the session. "It was a good meeting. We did our routine agenda," Mr. McLaughlin said to reporters afterward.

Mr. McLaughlin has been president of the CLC for more than 10 years. The CLC is a federation of 400 AFL-CIO-affiliated unions within the city, serving more than one million workers.