Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 10:02:55 PM EDT
|
The NY Times is out with a story tonight called, Christie May Have Gotten Improper Aid and it has some serious accusations regarding Chris Christie, Michele Brown and politicization at the US Attorney's office:When news broke in August that the former United States attorney, Christopher J. Christie, had lent $46,000 to a top aide in the federal prosecutor's office, he said he was merely helping a friend in need. He also said the aide, Michele Brown, had done nothing to help his gubernatorial campaign.
But interviews with federal law enforcement officials suggest that Ms. Brown used her position in two significant and possibly improper ways to try to aid Mr. Christie in his run for governor. Here's the situation:In March, when Gov. Jon S. Corzine's campaign requested public records about Mr. Christie's tenure as prosecutor, Ms. Brown interceded to oversee the responses to the inquiries, taking over for the staff member who normally oversaw Freedom of Information Act requests, according to federal law enforcement officials in Newark and Washington. The requested information included records about Mr. Christie's travel and expenses, along with Ms. Brown's travel records.
In mid-June, when F.B.I. agents and prosecutors gathered to set a date for the arrests of more than 40 targets of a corruption and money-laundering probe, Ms. Brown alone argued for the arrests to be made before July 1. She later told colleagues that she wanted to ensure that the arrests occurred before Mr. Christie's permanent successor took office, according to three federal law enforcement officials briefed on the conversation, presumably so that Mr. Christie would be given credit for the roundup. But wait, there's more:News of Mr. Christie's loan to Ms. Brown broke in August, dealing a blow to his candidacy, and he apologized for failing to report it on his tax returns and ethics filings.
Less than two weeks later, Justice Department officials told Mr. Christie's interim replacement, Ralph Marra, to remove Ms. Brown from acting as coordinator of the Freedom of Information Act requests about Mr. Christie's tenure because of the obvious conflict of interest, according to a federal law enforcement official briefed on the communications. Ms. Brown resigned from the prosecutor's office the same day, the official said. These are the same FOIA requests that have produced headlines of $700 limo rides and 5 star hotel stays putting Christie in the position to defend and justify since they've surfaced. We wondered why Brown resigned so fast and now we know. We've long suspected many of the things that are coming to light now and it's good to see them getting some of the scrutiny they deserve. The story seems like it has the potential to be big and certainly will have people talking tomorrow. |
| Jason Springer :: NY Times Bombshell on Christie politicization of the US Attorney's office |
|
|
Featured Stories  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
