Over the summer, Council Member Debi Rose’s campaign treasurer swore to and provided intricate affidavits for the Campaign Finance Board in response to inquiries about the campaign’s relationship with Data & Field Services, the for-profit company owned by the Working Families Party.

But when on Wednesday he was presented on the stand with the affidavits as part of the case being brought against Rose and Data & Field Services by Randy Mastro, the treasurer, David Thomas, said he had not written the affidavits—and in fact, was unfamiliar with most of the information contained within them.

“It was part of the document that the campaign gave me to sign,” Thomas said at one, disavowing responsibility for the assertions of one affidavit, adding a few moments later by ay of explanation, “the way our campaign ran was a lot of dysfunction.”

One of the affidavits in question was filed in response to an August 25 CFB document request apparently in response to two City Hall articles published in August. The first examined the relationship between the Working Families Party, Working Families-endorsed candidates and Data & Field Services (DFS). The second examined the relationship between some of these same candidates and New York Citizens Services, which is a subsidiary of ACORN.

Information contained in the articles “raises concerns regarding the Campaign’s compliance with the Act and the Rules,” the CFB letter to the Rose campaign states, continuing, “The information noted in these articles suggests that expenditures may have been and/or are being made on behalf of the Campaign that are not independent of the Campaign.”

Mastro’s argument in the case is that the Working Families Party, using Data & Field Services, provided below-market rate services to the Rose campaign, effectively giving her massive “in-kind contributions that its captive corporate shell supported,” as Mastro said in his opening statement.

There were two contracts between the Rose campaign and DFS: one signed June 7, and another signed August 7—which went into effect August 10, the same day City Hall published the first article documenting the significant staffing and service overlaps between DFS and the Working Families Party. The first contract states that it is to pay for a full-time campaign manager, and the second states that it is to pay for canvassing services as well as a part-time worker.

Mastro presented evidence meant to demonstrate that a campaign manager provided by DFS, Vonda McKeithan, had been paid more money by DFS than Rose had paid to cover that salary. Additionally, he attempted to demonstrate that McKeithan was just one of several DFS employees working on the Rose campaign, though the payments do not seem to reflect this. This evidence included statements in sworn affidavits submitted by Thomas. In pressing his points to Thomas, Mastro repeatedly used the phrase “you say in the affidavit…”

And Thomas repeatedly pushed back on these questions, insisting that he was unfamiliar with the substance of the affidavits.

“With all due respect, I know you say, ‘You say,’” Thomas said, interrupting Mastro at one point. “I say nothing. Someone else prepared this.”

Thomas said that the affidavits had been given to him by “campaign management,” though he confirmed that he had taken them himself to a notary public to sign the documents under oath. Reviewing their contents on the stand, Thomas professed ignorance of most of what they contained, and seemed to be confronting several of the assertions within them for the first time.

Among the facts Mastro sought information on was the identity of Bryan Collinsworth, a Working Families Party employee who acted as a spokesman for the Rose campaign.

Thomas’ August affidavit to the CFB included a four-point outline of Collinsworth’s work for the Rose campaign. On the stand on Wednesday, he said he had never heard of Collinsworth, and was unfamiliar with who Collinsworth was or what Collinsworth had done for the campaign.

Mastro also sought information from Thomas on what role Working Families employee Rachel Goodman had played on the campaign and what payments the campaign made for her services. Mastro presented evidence he said showed that Goodman was helping secure endorsements for Rose and providing regular strategic advice to the campaign as early as June. Mastro also inquired about the services of Emma Wolfe, then the Working Families elections and campaigns director.

Goodman has since become chief of staff to Council Member Brad Lander. Wolfe has since become chief of staff to Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

Mastro also took issue with the fact that the Rose campaign reported payments to DFS long after the Sept. 15 primary, and had not reported these as outstanding liabilities by that date.

“The reason I didn’t disclose what I was supposed to disclose is because I didn’t have the invoices in my possession, or the money—could be a bunch of reasons,” Thomas said, adding when Mastro re-confirmed with him that there were errors, “guilty, yeah.”

Lawrence Mandelker, one of the lawyers representing Data & Field Services, moved to strike this answer from the record and replace Thomas’s word with another.

Staten Island Supreme Court Judge Anthony Giacobbe refused.

“‘Guilty,’ it’s what he said,” Giacobbe said.

Mastro also tried to get information from Thomas about payments for the Voter Activation Network (VAN), a database provided by Data & Field Services from which the Rose campaign appears to have drawn at least part of its voter file. Rose campaign records show a $375 charge for the (VAN). Mastro claimed that DFS’ own paperwork shows that the VAN should have cost at least $1,500, though standing outside of the courtroom after the trial recessed for the day, he said, “I think that’s worth at least a five-figure sum.”

In his own comments outside the court with Working Families executive director Dan Cantor at his side, Mandelker urged that no conclusions should be drawn from Wednesday’s testimony. He had yet to cross-examine Thomas himself, Mandelker added, but more importantly, he expressed confidence that the facts and coming expert testimony would bear out that DFS charges “the high end of fair market value” for services.

“The campaign, for the services, paid more than other people usually pay for it,” Mandelker said.

Mandelker said he believes that the June 7 and August 7 contracts are meant to be read together, and cover the same scope of work. He said a $2,900 fee to a part-time employee covered Goodman’s salary. As for the money to cover Collinsworth’s salary, Mandelker said “there’s more than enough money to pay all of that stuff in the contract.” He did not offer an explanation for why Goodman’s costs were delineated while Collinsworth’s were not.

He added that though the DFS contract with the Rose campaign describes fees paid to “1 full-time campaign manager,” this does not mean that the money was paid to a single human being.

“It does not,” Mandelker said. “It covers the time of one full-time employee.”

Among those expected to take the stand on Thursday are Wolfe, Cantor and Working Families deputy director Bill Lipton--all of whom spent Wednesday in a witness room waiting to be called in to provide testimony.