After the "scandal" about Rudy Giuliani's security costs being "buried" among several city agencies while he was Mayor broke just before the Republican debate, he sat down with CBS' Katie Couric to rebut the charges:

Katie Couric: We were talking earlier, Mayor Giuliani, about the scrutiny that you have to endure when you run for public office, so much scrutiny that it really turns a lot of people off from participating in the process and throwing their hat in the ring. You experienced this recently where all of the papers today, I couldn't help but notice, are focused on your security detail, which you dealt with last night during the debate. But I am just curious, are you completely comfortable with the way it was handled and the way the billing was handled for example?

Rudy Giuliani: I was very comfortable with it and really upset that it was put out two hours before a debate with the suggestion that certain agencies were asked to bear the cost of my security. When you had a chance to look at it, it took about 3 to 4 hours to go through all of the records. The story turns out to be a totally false story. This practice was going on in my first term as mayor. It didn't just happen in my second term as mayor. The police department paid for all of these expenses. But since the police department would sometimes be slow in payment. City Hall would pay it first, then the police department would reimburse every single penny of it. And now we've been able to confirm that. So this was really, I know what this was. This story is five years old. It came out two hours before a debate. It's a typical political hit job with only half the story told ... not that second part told ... that every single penny was reimbursed ... that all of this was public. All of this was discoverable. It was not done in a way that nobody could see it. But it was a typical - this particular case - it was sort of a debate day dirty trick.

Couric: But according to accounts, the bills were spread across, as you're saying, several government agencies - from the NYC loft board to the office for people with disabilities. And one former New York budget director said today there's no good reason to do this except to have nobody know about it ...

Giuliani: He's just wrong. And that's probably a political opponent. The fact is, that by doing it that way, it was more discoverable. Had it been paid by the police department, it never would have been discovered because their records are security records and they can't be discovered. The reality is: All those agencies that you're talking about, all of it was fully reimbursed within that year. They're all in the mayor's office. This was a way of expediting payment. All of it on the record, all of it discoverable, all of it going on for five or six years. And perfectly appropriate and three budget directors have asserted that but of course the press doesn't cover that.

Couric: Those three former budget directors have basically explained it according to the way you're explaining it to me today.

Read the whole interview and report at the above link. There is little doubt this "scandal" was tipped to the media; today's reporters aren't industrious enough to do the legwork needed to uncover such things on their own. It probably wasn't an opposing campaign, because they would also have no way of getting the information (unless it was passed to them first). But Giuliani is the sort who doesn't mind stepping on toes, and some people hold a grudge about such things.