{"id":94812,"date":"2026-01-09T15:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/94812\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T15:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:30:11","slug":"randy-mastro-rips-dois-flawed-logic-for-questioning-his-madison-square-garden-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/94812\/","title":{"rendered":"Randy Mastro rips DOI’s ‘flawed’ logic for questioning his Madison Square Garden work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days before resigning as first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro took a parting shot at the city Department of Investigation, charging in a court filing that the watchdog agency was \u201cfundamentally flawed\u201d in raising concern about the legal work<\/a> he did for the Madison Square Garden business empire while in public service.<\/p>\n

Mastro submitted the Dec. 29 filing in response to ex-NBA player Charles Oakley\u2019s attorney having called on a Manhattan Federal Court judge to disqualify Mastro from working as an attorney for Madison Square Garden due to the Department of Investigation\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n

Oakley has for years been bogged down in a legal battle with MSG over his ejection from a Knicks game in 2017 that he alleges was retaliation for his criticism of the team\u2019s owner, James Dolan. Mastro has since 2017 been an attorney for Dolan\u2019s corporate empire in the case and, as first reported<\/a> by the Daily News, kept doing so on the side after Mayor Adams made him his first deputy in spring 2025.<\/p>\n

Because MSG holds various city government business interests, the Department of Investigation concluded in a report last month<\/a> that Mastro\u2019s representation of MSG while first deputy mayor \u201ctechnically violated\u201d the law and that he could have legally engaged in it only if he received a public waiver from the Conflicts of Interest Board. The DOI report stressed Mastro wasn\u2019t himself under investigation and faulted the board for clearing him for the work without a waiver.<\/p>\n

Still, in last month\u2019s court filing urging a judge to reject the Oakley lawyer\u2019s disqualification request, Mastro went out of his way to lambaste the DOI for its reasoning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile not relevant to the disposition of this application, I note that DOI\u2019s analysis is fundamentally flawed,\u201d Mastro wrote in a footnote to the previously unreported filing.<\/p>\n

\"FILEFILE – Former New York Knicks player Charles Oakley exchanges words with a security guard during the first half of an NBA basketball game between the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers, in New York’s Madison Square Garden, Feb. 8, 2017. (AP Photo\/Frank Franklin II, File)<\/p>\n

The flaw, Mastro continued, lay in the fact that the DOI\u2019s conclusion relied on local ethics law barring city officials from engaging in many forms of \u201cmoonlighting\u201d while in public service.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Moonlighting\u2019 is commonly understood to mean \u2018hav[ing] a second job in addition to one\u2019s regular employment,’\u201d Mastro wrote, citing the Oxford English Dictionary<\/a>. \u201cBut I did not have a second \u2018job.\u2019 Indeed, spending a few hours pro bono for the limited purpose of fulfilling my ethical obligation to appear at an imminent court hearing relating to MSG\u2019s motion for summary judgment \u2014 an effort I led prior to my appointment as First Deputy Mayor \u2014 is not \u2018moonlighting\u2019 at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate footnote, Mastro even claimed Oakley\u2019s attorney may have instigated the DOI\u2019s review of his MSG work. \u201cIt seems possible, if not probable, that Oakley\u2019s counsel generated this DOI inquiry in an attempt to have yet another bite at the apple on an issue they litigated and lost,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\"FirstFILE – First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro is pictured during a press conference at City Hall Friday, Aug. 22, 2025, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Mastro, who has returned to his private law practice since leaving City Hall on Dec. 31 ahead of Mayor Mamdani\u2019s inauguration, didn\u2019t return a request for comment Thursday.<\/p>\n

In response to Mastro\u2019s rebuke, DOI spokeswoman Dianne Struzzi said her agency \u201cstands by the findings in our report.\u201d She also dismissed Mastro\u2019s claim about any involvement of Oakley\u2019s attorney, saying the DOI\u2019s \u201cinquiry began with media reports,\u201d specifically The News\u2019 coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The judge overseeing the Oakley matter has set a hearing for Tuesday to consider Oakley\u2019s request to disqualify Mastro from the proceeding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two days before resigning as first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro took a parting shot at the city Department…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[44350,302,44349,222,75,84,83,9,24,63,5326],"class_list":["post-94812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-charles-oakley","tag-city-hall","tag-department-of-investigation","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-randy-mastro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}