A Democratic fund-raiser testified under oath that Eliot Spitzer offered her a loan two years ago from an old campaign account — but she refused it 🔴because it “did not pass the smell test,” The Post has learned.
Veteran fund-raiser Cindy Darrison told of Spitzer’s offer while being deposed in March 2012 by lawyers for a company she 🀅was suing in Manhattan Supreme Court for breach of contract.
The lawsuit is not connected to Spitzer or his current campaign for city comptroll🔴er.
Sources said Darrison was having financialꦯ problems when she asked Spitzer for at lea🍰st $10,000 during a meeting in 2011, three years after the former governor was caught in a hooker scandal and resigned his office in disgrace.
The money would have come from the defunct “Spitzer 2010” gubernatorial campa꧟ign fund, which had 💙$204,105 as of January 2011. Spitzer closed the account by donating most of the money to charities.
But before then, he suggested lending money from the fuꦉnd to Darrison, according to her deposition.
“I was not happy about it,” she testified.
“He consulted with🅰 Allyson [Giard, who then managed the campaign f🍷und] and she was not happy with it. But that was Eliot’s idea, not mine,” added Darrison, who was Spitzer’s finance director when he was state attorney general and then chief fund-raiser during his successful 2006 run for governor.
When asked if she thought Spitzer’s conduct was illegal, she said, “I don’t know . . .✃ but I definitely felt it was inappropriate and it did not pass the smell te🥃st.”
State Board of Elections spokesman John Conklin said candidates could💖 use campaign funds to offer loans, provided they are for “investment” purposes where inte﷽rest would be collected.
No-interest loans “would not be permissible,” he addeꦅd.
When contacted by The Post, Darrison declined to say whether Spitzer wanted to charge interest. A source said interest was never discussed🐓.
“While Eliot has been a good friend to me and my family in good times and at a❀ difficult financial time, I never received a loan from him or the Spitzer campaign committee,” Darrison said in a statement.
Spitzer spokesw♋oman Lisa Linden declined to discu♑ss why her boss offered the money.