(The Center Square) — The New York City Council’s ethics committee has agreed to end disciplinary proceedings against Republican Council Member Vickie Paladino over her anti-Muslim tweets in exchange for her, dropping a legal challenge.
A settlement, signed off on by a state Supreme Court judge Monday, requires Paladino to drop her lawsuit against the council, delete three social media posts and remove any mention of being a council member from her personal Twitter account.
In exchange, the City Council will withdraw disciplinary charges against the Queens councilor “with prejudice” even though she is expected to face an official reprimand for her remarks.
“To be clear, my personal social media posts were not directed at any council member or staff,” Paladino said Monday in a court-required statement. “I am responsible for the content, I never intended to make council members or staff feel unwelcome or unsafe in their work environment. I sent a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to the court for facilitating this resolution.”
The settlement also declares that neither party shall “make further comment on this matter on social media, in the press or to any other person, except to say: I cannot comment beyond the publicly available stipulation.”
In March, the City Council’s standards and ethics committee voted to charge Paladino for remarks she’s made on social media criticizing newly appointed members of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration. The Queens lawmaker called for the expulsion of Muslims from western countries and suggested that the U.S. should impose a ban on the Islamic religion.
Council Speaker Julie Menin, a Democrat, called Paladino’s comments “unacceptable and deeply Islamophobic” and pushed for the council to sanction her for ethics violations.
Paladino blasted the ethics committee’s vote as “politically motivated” and filed a preemptive lawsuit last week seeking to block the council from taking a final vote on the committee’s recommendations to censure her. She filed a lawsuit against the committee preemptively to block potential sanctions.
“The council intends to set a dangerous precedent for every legislator: if we don’t like your speech, we are coming after you,” Paladino’s 28-page complaint states.
Paladino said none of the posts cited by the committee during its investigation contained any threats of violence and were protected by the First Amendment.
Her legal challenge was backed by New York State Republican Party chairman Ed Cox, who said the party “stands unequivocally” with her “fight against the radical New York City Council’s political and vindictive charges.”
