After promising that taxpayers would not pay for his legal bills, Mayor Bill de Blasio is doing an abrupt about-face: he now says the city will cover about $2 million in outside legal fees connected to the federal and local investigations into his fundraising. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.

Mayor de Blasio racked up some hefty legal bills this past year as a result of multiple investigations into his political activities.

The mayor, however, had made it clear he would raise money to pay his lawyers and not stick the city with the bill.

"I think, as I'm the leader of the whole operation, it is better not to ask the taxpayers to cover expenses," de Blasio said March 29.

But the mayor now says City Hall will cover about $2 million in legal bills from the investigations.

"To me, when I looked at all the factors and thought about it more, it actually makes more sense to just do it this way and put it behind us," de Blasio says.

The probes into the mayor and his associates wound down earlier this year with prosecutors declining to press charges.

De Blasio says he has about $300,000 in additional legal bills related to investigations into his efforts to elect Democrats to the State Senate. He says he plans to raise private money through a legal defense fund to cover those costs.

De Blasio says the $2 million being picked up by taxpayers is connected to his work as mayor.

"What we are talking about here is a small amount in the scheme of things in terms of the city's legal expenses," de Blasio said.

The mayor's leading Republican rival denounced his decision to have the city foot the bill.

"It's very sad that he decided to throw this on the taxpayers on July 4th weekend, hoping that no one is going to pay attention, that they all went to the beach for the weekend, and that he can get away with doing this," Republican candidate for mayor Nicole Malliotakis told me. "He should be raising the money."

Currently, the city's Conflicts of Interest Board prohibits him from getting donations in this type of fund larger than $50. So the mayor will have to ask the City Council to change the law.

He says he would support that move by the Council.