TORONTO — An increasingly isolated Mayor Rob Ford huddled with his two lawyers for close to an hour in his much smaller city hall offices Wednesday amid new questions about his workout trainer and the release of wiretap information.
Despite Ford’s threats in recent days to sue both former staffers who talked to police, and city council for truncating his powers, there was little sign he would be carrying through with those.
Ford said he had been left no choice but to litigate after unproven court documents revealed his former aides had told police, among other things, the mayor was regularly intoxicated, abusive to subordinates, and used sexual profanities towards female staffers. “My personal feeling is that he spoke as reaction to what he read,” one of Ford’s lawyers, Dennis Morris, said minutes after the meeting ended.
“I haven’t heard that he’s moving forward.”
The mayor, who arrived late in the day at city hall, did not speak to reporters.
Ford’s other lawyer — an expert in municipal affairs — was not immediately available to comment on the situation in which council stripped the scandal-plagued mayor of much of his power, budget and staff.
However, Morris gave no indication any litigation was imminent.
“Things are under consideration as to what the next steps would be,” he said.
The lawyer did say the mayor was working out and looking better than ever.
However, a new report Wednesday said Ford has been consulting on a fitness plan with a trainer jailed in the U.S. in 2005 for steroid trafficking.
According to the National Post, Valerio Moscariello — owner of Team Body Pro Athletics — tweeted a now-deleted picture of himself in the gym with Ford.
Initially, Moscariello, who is in the middle of a 12-year coaching ban in Canada for administering the bulk-up hormones, spoke enthusiastically about Ford giving it his all on the treadmill and needing to lose some of his 336 pounds, the National Post said.
However, he later said it was “joke picture and has been blown up for now reason.”
Moscariello could not immediately be reached for comment.
Morris denied any connection between the mayor and the trainer.