Giuliani and others on City Hall secrecy

Some quotes from Rudy Giuliani and others on government secrecy when he was mayor of New York:

"I would make sure that government was transparent. My government in New York City was so transparent that they knew every single thing I did almost every time I did it." — Rudy Giuliani

"If Rudy was president, nobody should make any mistake — there will be no transparency in government." — Attorney Eve Burton, who represented the New York Daily News in the Giuliani era

"Nitpicking aside, Rudy Giuliani ran a government based on the need for openness and transparency. These are basic principles Rudy will govern by and enforce from the top down as president of the United States." — Randy Mastro, deputy mayor under Giuliani

Giuliani's claims of transparency are "beyond laughable. It's preposterous. ... I can't think of any (mayor in the modern era) from whom it has been so difficult to pry information out of." — Mike Wallace, distinguished professor of history at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, who has criticized Giuliani for seizing his mayoral records in 2001

As mayor, Giuliani was "taking on all the people who are used to running this show. ... He incurred a great deal of hostility. ... Was he secretive? Yeah. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have been successful." — Historian Fred Siegel, who worked on Giuliani's 1993 campaign and wrote a biography that is generally supportive of his years as mayor

Giuliani "forced people to take appeal after appeal on freedom of information requests and delayed the release of information to the public by a process of resistance. ... He is not a man who has high or even moderate regard for civil liberties." — First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams