ALBANY, N.Y. – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endured a sometimes heated volley of questions Tuesday from a lawyer challenging his claim that he lives in New York and seeking to keep the independent candidate off the state's presidential ballot.
Kennedy testified that his address is in the well-to-do New York City suburb of Katonah, and he has said he only moved to California temporarily in 2014 to be with his wife, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines. The suit filed on behalf of several voters seeks to invalidate his New York ballot petition.
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In one tense exchange in the Albany courtroom, voters' attorney Keith Corbett produced a July 2 affirmation from Kennedy saying his driver’s license was registered to the Katonah address. But Corbett said government documents show the registration did not list that address until the next day.
“You are familiar with the term ‘perjury’?” Corbett asked.
“Of course I am,” Kennedy replied, adding that his assistant handled the paperwork.
“I will certainly correct this. I was wrong by 24 hours,” Kennedy said.
“I have lived in New York for 50 years,” he added.
Corbett raised doubts about Kennedy's residency claim on multiple fronts. He handed Kennedy a federal statement of candidacy with a Los Angeles address and had the candidate acknowledge he had moved his mementos, books and pets from New York to California.
“The dogs came, the hawks stayed,” Kennedy said, referring to his raptors.
Kennedy, in a blue suit, confidently answered many questions but seemed less sure with some queries related to a series of trusts and real estate transactions. He was defiant when Corbett produced documents indicating Kennedy voted in 2016 listing an address of a suburban New York home that his sister had sold a year earlier. When Corbett bought up voter fraud, Kennedy responded: “My testimony here is that I never defrauded anybody.”
Kennedy's testimony was to continue Wednesday.
The lawsuit alleges Kennedy’s New York ballot nomination petition listed a residence in Katonah while he actually has lived in the Los Angeles area since 2014. The suit is backed by Clear Choice PAC, a super PAC led by supporters of Democratic President Joe Biden. A judge is set to decide the outcome without a jury.
Earlier in the day, the woman who owns the Katonah property testified that Kennedy rents a room from her for $500 a month, but acknowledged that those payments began a day after a news article questioned the candidate's claim that he lives in New York.
Barbara Moss has owned the property in Katonah since 1991 and lives there with her husband, Timothy Haydock, an old Kennedy friend, according to court papers.
Under questioning from Kennedy attorney William F. Savino, Moss said Kennedy was her tenant who pays $500 a month for a room. There is no written lease, she said.
“As long as Bobby needs the room, it will continue," she said “That was our understanding.”
A lawyer for the petitioners, John Quinn, noted that the first payment to Moss was made May 20, the day after a New York Post story casting doubt on Kennedy’s claim that he lived at that address. And Moss affirmed that initial payment was for $6,000, an amount equal to a year’s back rent.
The lawsuit claims Kennedy “at most only visited” the residence about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of midtown Manhattan.
In a video posted in his Facebook page Tuesday, the 70-year-old Kennedy said he has lived in New York ever since his father moved there in 1964 to run his successful campaign for U.S. Senate. This was after his father's brother, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. His own father was also shot to death in 1968 while running for president.
“I moved out to California in 2014 … to support Cheryl, who could not move at that time. One of us had to," said Kennedy, who led a New York-based environmental group for decades. "We both agreed at that point that when she was done acting there that she’d come back to New York and we’d move back to New York and maybe she would do Broadway or whatever.
“But I always kept New York residence because I love New York,” he said. “It’s part of who I am. It’s part of my identity, and it was important to me to keep it.”
Kennedy has said in court papers that he moved to the Katonah address after being asked last year to leave a nearby home where he had been staying. That account was disputed in court on Monday by the owners of that house, who said Kennedy was never a tenant.
While independent presidential candidates like Kennedy face extremely long odds, he has the potential to do better than any such candidate in decades, helped by his famous name and a loyal base. Both Democrat and Republican strategists worry he could negatively affect their candidate’s chances.
Kennedy's campaign has said he has enough signatures to qualify in 42 states so far. His ballot drive has faced challenges and lawsuits in several states, including North Carolina and New Jersey.