TPM is out with a story today that almost creates more questions than it answers, due to a heavily redacted FBI file, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The players are US Attorney, now governor, Chris Christie and the John Adler, before his election to Congress while he was still a NJ state senator. Given what we know about Christie, what comes to light today appears to suggest more about him, and the way he used his federal office for politically-motivated witch hunts - which were often successful - than it does the late John Adler.
The documents detail an investigation approved by U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, following information from a cooperating witness who approached the FBI's Philadelphia division in June, 2007 with a story that Senator Adler's support - for a 2005 law placing inspection contracts under "local public contract law" -was corrupt.
The case was later closed for lack of evidence, and was not an issue in Adler's successful run for congress the following year. You can read the details of what was investigated in TPM's post. There appears, at least with documents so heavily redacted, to be nothing to the cooperating witness' suspicions about Adler, nothing actionable. There's no evidence Adler even knew there was an investigation. An Adler confidante suggested to TPM that the cooperating witness may have "had a bone to pick with Adler.'
Senator Weinberg today called on US Attorney Paul Fishman and Attorney General Paula Dow for a full investigation of Reform Jersey Now, citing concerns the group was organized with the specific goal of subverting federal and NJ campaign finance laws; also NJ pay-to-play laws. In letters to Fishman & Dow, Weinberg says an investigation is warranted because Reform Jersey Now appears to have been "a Republican-controlled entity (designed) to circumvent campaign finance and pay to play laws." Weinberg also said there are concerns that the group "could have facilitated quid pro quo arrangements" between the administration and would-be state contractors.
Among contributors causing concern, Weinberg cites 2 highest-level donors, Ferreira Construction & George Harms Construction. Both gave $25K and received state transportation contracts in excess of $300 million. Another contribution of $1K from comes from Earle Asphalt Company, which has run afoul of NJ pay-to-play rules. Weinberg:
From its inception, Reform Jersey Now has sought to take advantage of every loophole under state and federal law and has blurred the line between lawful and unlawful conduct. Its contempt for our pay to play and other anti-corruption laws has opened the door to abuse and quid pro quo transactions. There is little doubt that by coordinating its efforts with prominent Republicans and openly soliciting contributions from contractors, Reform Jersey Now has violated the spirit of the law. The question remains, however, whether it violated the letter of the law.
Weinberg also challenges Gov. Christie's claims that the group organized to privately propel his own agenda ever actually had a real "reform" agenda, given its refusal to disclose where its money was going, and given the fact its board included Christie Todd Whitman, whose pension bond scheme exploded NJ debt, and Donald DiFrancesco whose 9% pension increase was pushed through without providing a way to pay for it.
And when many top NJ lawyers pointed out that Christiedidn't have any experience in criminal law and his appointment was directly connected to the above hundreds of thousands in donations for Bush, that was just a coincidence.
All the documents, in larger, readable form, are after the jump
Here are 14 reciepts and memos generated for Chris Christie's travel and lodging in his last job, as US Attorney for New Jersey. According to the Inspector General of the US Dept of Justice, Christie engaged in a "pattern of abuse" in luxury travel spending on himself billed to taxpayers while he held that job (read the Report). Living it up on the government dime, as emptywheel put it so well. These 14 docs came to us via a Blue Jersey reader; they were obtained under a public records request.
You've read some of this already. You know that this is standard operating procedure for Christie - hypocrisy, doing as he pleases (even when you're paying), and traveling all over the country preaching austerity to GOP faithful (but don't look too close).
Use your scrollbar to review all 14 documents; receipts from several luxury hotels, and memos from Christie explaining repeatedly that he was unable to secure government rate for his lodging.
Once again, what Christie says should apply to everyone else and what applies to him are exactly the opposite. Under "Christie's rules", seniors, the middle class, public employees, commuters, women and all but a privileged few must sacrifice as part of belt tightening. But the other side of "Christie's rules" is that Chris Christie gets to do what Chris Christie wants - regardless of the conflict of interest or hypocrisy. Lead by example? Not by a longshot.
Case in point: the just-released report by the US Department of Justice, Inspector General's office on US Attorney travel that exceeded the Government lodging rate
In terms of the percentage of travel, U.S. Attorney C was the U.S. Attorney who most often exceeded the government rate without adequate justification. The U.S. Attorney provided insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification for 14 of 23 trips (61 percent) that exceeded the government rate.
And that is just from 2007 - 2009.
As always, emptywheel is all over this, just as we mentioned during the campaign as well - even when his expenses were approved by a subordinate, which is Rule number one on avoiding conflicts of interest. Two of the many egregious examples include a 4 mile roundtrip trip from a luxury Boston hotel to and from the airport - costing $236; and a car service from the airport to his hotel in London (why is a US Attorney is taking overseas business trips again?) costing almost $600.
This was not a one -time thing, or even a few "transgressions". I'll repeat: Chris Christie overbilled the US Government for excessive travel and luxury hotel costs more than every other US Attorney and for more than 60% of his total trips.
More from the report on Christie's serial abuse:
U.S. Attorney C declined our request for an interview. In a letter to the OIG, U.S. Attorney C's attorney stated that the U.S. Attorney was unable to provide "any other specific information" to supplement the travel documentation that we had provided to him for review.
In sum, we concluded that U.S. Attorney C did not comply with the travel regulations or show that his lodging costs which exceeded the government rate were appropriate. The U.S. Attorney or his staff did not make an adequate effort to determine whether the government rate was available within a reasonable distance of his meetings. Most of the justification memoranda that we found simply stated that the government rate was unavailable, but provided no substantiation for this claim. In four cases, there was no justification memorandum at all.
Way to set an example, Governor. I guess when it comes to eliminating excessive government spending, that only applies to everyone else.
Northjersey.com reported a few minutes ago that Mayor Anthony R. Suarez, who hung on to his seat as most politicians arrested on the day of last summer's massive corruption sweep gave theirs up, and survived an August recall election, has just been acquitted on all counts. Suarez' was the subject of newspaper editorials calling for him to step down. Of the politicians bagged in the Solomon Dwek sting, Suarez remains the last to keep his office.
Earlier this month, jurors watched a grainy black-and-white video from a hidden camera carried on Dwek's chest at about eye-level with Suarez. Dwek posed as a corrupt developer offering bribes in exchange for building approvals. The word "bribe" was never used, but prosecutors did use that word in the trial, saying Suarez took $10,000 in bribes from the one-time rabbinical student, turned criminal, turned informant. Suarez' co-defendant Vincent Tabbachino was acquitted of conspiracy, but found guilty of attempted extortion and bribery.
Mayor Suarez' acquittal marks the first time in more than 10 years that a public official has been cleared of corruption charges by a federal jury in New Jersey. The massive corruption sweep of last summer, an investigation started by Chris Christie when he was still United States Attorney for NJ and with Democratic politicians overwhelmingly the target, played a key role in propelling Christie to the governorship.
Chris Christie won the Governor election with less than 50% of the vote. That means more than half of the voters wanted someone other than him to govern.
He has consistently abused his power. He pulled rank as a US Attorney to get out of a ticket when he went the wrong way down a one way street, and also pulled rank when he got a speeding ticket in an unregistered car to avoid being towed. He failed to disclose his close financial relationship with top assistant Michele Brown, a conflict of interest. He gave huge no bid contracts to his boss (John Ashcroft) and the man who didn't prosecute his brother for securities fraud, while 19 others were prosecuted. He governs with a personal vendetta to the detriment of New Jerseyans.
Zack Fink has a story about Lou Manzo, who has announced he will hold a press conference next week to accuse federal prosecutors of misconduct in building a case against him.
Toward the end of Fink's story, which he titled "Jack Shaw's last words," he has this exchange that occured after Manzo and Jersey City Political consultant were waiting in jail:
When asked about the nature of the interrogation Manzo says Shaw told him "Guantanamo's got nothin' on these guys." Shaw died a week later,...an apparent drug overdose which Manzo believes was not intentional.
According to Fink, Shaw told Manzo he had been interrogated for "several hours" the night before at a hotel room in Secaucus trying to get him to implicate Joe Doria, who still hasn't been charged. Even if you believe what Manzo is saying, I don't know how he will ever prove what he's saying because Shaw isn't around to corroborate the story. And it's not like Manzo will be able to clear his name in the court of public opinion, past a correction on the inside pages of a paper.
We will have a new Attorney General when the new Governor takes office in January as Chris Christie announced yesterday that Anne Milgram does not want to stay on in the position:
"She says she doesn't want to stay," Christie told reporters after speaking to high school students in Hamilton. "Someone who says they don't want to stay, I don't want to consider."
It wasn't really expected she would stay in the position, so this isn't a very surprising change. Milgram became Attorney General after Stuart Rabner became a NJ Supreme Court Justice. And on who her replacement would be as the next Attorney General, New Jersey Newsroom has sources saying it's a familiar name:
High-ranking Republicans familiar with steps Governor-elect Chris Christie is taking to shape his administration said Monday that U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Ralph Marra is in line to become state attorney general after the Republican takes office on Jan. 19.
Christie has stated that he is looking for a "tough" prosecutor who can work well with the U.S. Attorney's office and make fighting corruption a priority. Marra took over the office as acting US attorney when Christie resigned to run for Governor, so he definitely has a knowledge of how they would work. He also ran into some difficulties upon taking over as Acting US Attorney, seeing an investigation open internally for comments he made during the corruption busts that occurred in July and how they may have helped Christie's campaign for Governor.
There's been a lot of supposition over the years that the US Attorney's office under Chris Christie leaked like a sieve, slipping information damaging to Democrats to the press while holding tight to information that could hurt Republicans.
The evidence was largely circumstantial. How did the press find out about the subpoena to Bob Menendez just weeks before the Senatorial election? Why was Brian Thompson standing around as subpoenas were served on Democrats in the Christmas Tree investigation?
There is surely no fire here, and maybe only a scent of smoke from far away. But the actions and subpoenas of the past seven months are exactly what a US Attorney who was told to put pressure on the Democrats would start doing. Every time a Democrat starts gaining points, hit them with a subpoena. Every time a Republican needs to score points, make an announcement.
Well, now there's fire to go with the smoke. The Corzine FOIA requests for Christie's communications have unearthed actual phone slips of calls from the media to Christie late on the afternoon of February 27th, 2007 -- the day before subpoenas were dropped on three Democratic legislators.
Here's Brian Thompson of television's NBC News, talking with Christie the afternoon before the subpoenas dropped:
And here's Michael Gartland of The Record talking the same afternoon:
Both Thompson was hanging out at the statehouse just in time for the subpoenas on February 28th, 2007 ensuring quick coverage on television and the Internet.
It's no stretch to think that Christie was the leak, telling reporters about secret Grand Jury actions -- which is, by the way, a crime. Christie has to answer for this, and either reveal what he talked about with Thompson and Gartland that day or tacitly admit that he personally was the leak.
Before today it was easy to believe Christie used leaks from his office to aid in his political goals. After today it is hard to refute.
While huntsu has been all over the connections between Todd Christie, Joe Kyrillos, Chris Christie and the politicization of the US Attorneys office, Freedom of Information requests shed some more light on the situation:
Kyrillos left messages for Christie at the U.S. Attorney's office 48 times between 2002 and 2008, including 19 times while Kyrillos was the Republican State Chairman, according to a log of Christie's incoming phone calls requested by the Corzine campaign as part of an extensive series of document requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The Corzine campaign received the phone logs late Friday.
Most of the phone messages shed little information as to the topics Christie and Kyrillos were discussing. Kyrillos tended to call after 5PM, and would usually leave a message that offered little detail.
Kyrillos did call Christie on April 22, 2002, the day Todd Christie wrote a $225,000 check to the Republican State Committee.
After he takes the political appointment, the FEO is not supposed to be engaged in partisan politics very much but there is no such restriction on his close family. The FEO contributes $2000 to his candidate -- and now boss -- for the reelection campaign, and his wife does the same. The FEO's brother's wife gives another two checks for $3000 [2]to the candidate and three checks for $4500 [2, 3]to the national party, but the brother beats them all.
Soon after the FEO takes office, the brother contributes a single check worth $225,000 to the national party, and since then another three individual $25,000 [2, 3] checks for a grand total of $300,000 to the national party. But that's not all. The brother also issued checks over the past few years since FEO took office for $20,000, $25,000 and $25000 to the NJ party's state fund, and checks of $5,000, $10,000 and $10,000 to the federal fund. A check for $5,000 is reimbursed.
Now we know that not only did brother Todd circulate the money around, but as the records show, brother Chris got a call from Kyrillos the same day as one of the larger contributions. It's pretty impressive how much of a woman ahead of her times huntsu was. It's also a shame the rest of the media wasn't paying as close attention as huntsu was. We may have found this information out confirming the suspicions of some more than 3 days before the election.
The Star Ledger had an eye opening reminder of the connections between Herb Stern and Chris Christie dating back to Christie initially getting the job and leading up to the conclusion of his tenure with his actions just before leaving office. Let's recap and look at who supported Christie when he first got the US Attorney job while many did not:
Herbert Stern was one of the few prominent lawyers who initially supported Christie as he came under widespread fire for his lack of law-enforcement experience when he became U.S. attorney in 2002.
In 2005, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie gave Herbert Stern and his law firm, Stern & Kilcullen, a $3 million no-bid contract to monitor the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Dec. 2005 as part of a deferred prosecution agreement after the institution admitted to committing Medicare fraud. Christie considers Stern a "mentor," according to the New York Times.
Before leaving the U.S. Attorney's office, Christie hired Samuel Stern, the son of Herbert Stern, to work as a federal prosecutor.
During his Republican primary campaign for governor, Chris Christie accepted $23,800 in campaign contributions from the principals and spouses of Stern & Kilcullen, the firm to which Christie had given a $3 million contract to monitor UMDNJ.
Herbert Stern and his wife each gave $3,400 to Chris Christie's gubernatorial campaign, as did John Inglesino and his wife. Inglesino, a lawyer at Stern & Kilcullen, had served as Stern's chief counsel in the UMDNJ case.
Now questions were raised about the hiring and these contributions in the primary, but Christie shrugged them off as just politics. There has also been plenty of talk about Inglesino's role and actions.
As time goes by however, we find out more details of the lengths Christie went to make sure Stern's son was hired:
Typically, candidates are subject to several rounds of interviews, meeting first with three rank-and-file prosecutors. If that goes well, they meet with three division supervisors. The final interview is typically with the U.S. attorney or a top deputy.
In Stern's case, he performed poorly in his first round, and none of the rank-and-file assistants who interviewed him recommended that he be hired, the officials said. He was given the unusual opportunity for a second chance with three different rank-and-file assistants, but again received negative reviews, the officials said.
Then on Friday, Nov. 14 - after Stern had met with just two supervisors - Christie offered him the job, the officials said. The following Monday, Christie announced his own resignation.
Just how poorly did the younger Stern do in the interview:
Christie hired Samuel Stern over objections from nearly every assistant U.S. attorney who interviewed him, according to three federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of the hiring process.
They contended Stern, who at the time was two years out of law school, lacked the experience to become a federal prosecutor, the officials said. And before hiring him, Christie took the unusual step of changing the interview process after receiving negative reviews, according to the officials who spoke to The Star-Ledger on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the matter.
This looks like a parting shot for Christie right before he left office. And he changed the rules to make sure it happens. Now it can be one set of rules for himself, another for everyone else, unless he wants to change them to the rules he wants. Maybe that was the cherry on top of the sundae?
This is not what Chris Christie wants to be talking about coming down the home stretch of the campaign. He went on CNN yesterday and during the segment, was asked about his ties to Michele Brown and the use of the US Attorney's office for political gain:When asked about Lautenberg callng for an investigation into the ethical concerns about using his office for political gain, Christie responded that he should focus on getting federal dollars back to NJ. Maybe Christie is referring to those federal stimulus funds the Senator helped NJ get, you know the ones Christie has said he would turn down?
When asked if he set up a firewall between people in the US Attorneys office and his campaign, he said he wasn't campaiging while in office, which many here would disagree. He said he never asked Michele Brown to help him, but really didn't seem to appreciate he was being asked the question in the first place.
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.
Without questions nor debate, the committee unanimously moved the 52-year-old defense lawyer's nomination to the full Senate for a final vote. Fishman, who lives in Montclair, was nominated in June by President Obama.
Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law who specializes in judicial appointments, said committee approval is often perfunctory for non-controversial nominees.
Given the Democrats' majority in the Senate, the approval from the Judiciary Committee all but guarantees Fishman will be confirmed, Tobias said.
He now awaits the vote before the Senate before he can replace Ralph Marra, who became acting U.S. Attorney when Chris Christie resigned from office to formally begin his campaign for Governor. Wally over at PNJ speculated about the time frame and factors that may come into play regarding how everything goes:
Paul Fishman could be sworn in as United States Attorney within a week, although delays are inevitable - especially if Democrats prefer that the new federal prosecutor not be the one to sign off on requests for documents from Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved Fishman's nomination today. Now the full Senate must vote on his confirmation, which is expected to come on the next unanimous consent calendar vote. That could be as early as Tuesday. After that, President Barack Obama must formally sign his commission; that could happen on the same day as the Senate vote, or a few days after that. Then Fishman must arrange for a federal judge to swear him in; that also could happen immediately.
We'll have to see at what pace everything progresses. It would be fascinating to see whether Fishman's office would be able to process the the public records requests that Marra's office hasn't produced because they're moving as fast as they can.
Chris Christie faced a tough crowd of seniors the other day, who didn't like his vagueness and lack of answers to their specific questions. As a result of the exchanges, I have finally been inspired by Chris Christie... to teach myself some video editing skills, because everyone has gotta be concerned:I'm an amateur, but a penny for your thoughts.
Q: Will the resignation of first assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown put to rest the unreported loan Chris Christie made to her, or does her resignation raise more questions?
BYRNE: I think it raises more questions. The Brown situation has been trivialized by Christie. Now this lady resigns you can't trivialize it anymore.
KEAN: It's sad. This is a public servant whose work has been praised by everybody from people serving now in the Corzine administration to people outside government. The fact that she felt she had to resign is sad. I think the governor - or maybe his campaign people - should be ashamed. The only people who are happy today are the crooks she helped put in jail. This was a case of taking politics one step too far.
BYRNE: Tom, you're good at this. You take an issue that Christie created and make it the Democrats' fault. That's a successful formula, and you're good at it.
KEAN: This is not a successful formula for anything. We need a good governor and good people in the prosecutor's office. That Michele Brown was hounded out of office by unscrupulous campaign operatives because she sought a loan to save her home when her husband was out of a job is outrageous. Nobody has criticized her or her work except those convicted of major crimes.
BYRNE: There you go again, Tom, taking something Christie did and blaming the Democrats.
KEAN: Having compassion for a friend and co-worker and helping them save their home is something he should have done - and we would have done it also.
BYRNE: Yes, and reported it.
KEAN: I don't think everyone knows you're supposed to report interest on a loan to a friend. When he found that out he corrected it.
BYRNE: Are you just the honorary chairman of his campaign? You're doing a good job.
Byrne is exactly right. Christie created this issue by not reporting the loan and filing it in the first place. The issue wasn't uncovered by the Democrats, it was first reported by NJN. Then the NY Times followed up with news that it wasn't filed on ethics reports and the Star Ledger reported the lack of filing for tax purposes. And for those who want to say the media is biased, the facts laid out in these stories haven't been disputed. Instead, Christie and his supporters are trying to deflect attention from this latest self inflicted wound. For Christie, the buck always stops with someone else because it's one set of rules for him, another set for the rest of us.
Some people, including the Christie campaign, are saying Chris Christie got a speeding ticket, and so what? Ok, even if you take that tack, what's the explanation for the shifting stories?
His campaign acknowledged Aug. 26 that Christie's job as U.S. Attorney came up at the stop as Christie handed over his license and identification to the police officer.
Lambertville Police Director Bruce Cocuzza: "He identified himself as a U.S. Attorney but I don't think the officer on duty knew what that was," he said.
So the Chief says Christie identified himself and the campaign says it was at the time of showing identification. But now, Christie says it wasn't him, it was the one armed man... err tow truck driver:
Christie said that he had not identified himself as the U.S. attorney, but that a tow truck driver had recognized him.
No offense, but Christie's name ID in 2005 probably registered just above mine. That's like me saying that I got a flat on the highway and the tow truck driver fixed it all for free because he recognized me as a writer for Blue Jersey. This latest iteration of the story came four days after the initial campaign response. If it's such a simple situation, what's with the delay in between this latest update? That wasn't the only change in the story made.
"He was agitated at the prospect of his vehicle being towed away," said Cocuzza, a Democrat who ran for Hunterdon County Sheriff in 2007, told PolitickerNJ.com's Max Pizarro in a phone interview. "He was worried about his family being left on the side of the road with no vehicle."
[snip]
Cocuzza said that Christie did tell the officer about his law enforcement position.
"He was a little loud at the prospect of being towed and then calmed down."
Lambertville Police Director Bruce Cocuzza reported that Christie got loud during the stop, but Christie described his demeanor only as "affirmative." "I don't think I got loud or abusive, but I certainly was saying 'let me drive my car home and I will take care of the oversight on the registration on my wife's car when the DMV opens up on Monday,' which we did," Christie said.
What a perfectly scripted talking point in response to this situation, well done by whoever wrote it for him. And Christie wasn't done correcting the record.
Contradiction # 3:
On who got out of the car, when and why:
Christie also denied a report that Brown got out of the car during the stop and flashed her badge. She resigned as first assistant U.S. attorney on Tuesday after it was revealed that Christie had loaned her $46,000. Christie said only he got out of the vehicle, at the officer's request.
I always thought you were supposed to stay in the car. And we weren't done yet.
New Jersey 101.5 FM reported this afternoon that Christie, now the Republican gubernatorial nominee, was stopped for speeding in what turned out to be an unregistered, uninsured vehicle, but was allowed to drive the car away.
He was also ticketed for not having insurance or registration. He said the car, which belonged to his wife, was insured, but she had allowed the registration to lapse.
Way to throw your wife under the bus on that one. There's also conflicting reports about whether he paid a $250 fine or $700 in fines. There may be reasonable explanations to some of these questions, but why the delay in correcting the record if it's such a simple case of someone getting a speeding ticket? It's not like people weren't giving the campaign an opportunity to tell their side of the story. If Christie's trying to make this story go away, or sell the idea that there isno story here, all the holes and differing accounts of what actually happened are in fact keeping the story alive.
Eight days after news broke that the first Assistant US Attorney Michele Brown had a $46,000 loan from Chris Christie, she has resigned from the position:
In her resignation letter dated today, Michele Brown, the acting first assistant U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, said it has been an "honor and privilege" to serve, but she does not want to be "a distraction" for the office.
"I am extraordinarily proud of all the work we have done and all the good we have accomplished on behalf of the people of this state," Brown wrote. "I also know how important it is that we continue to pursue our mission, and I do not want to become a distraction from the critically important work we do."
New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie said he won't ask a federal prosecutor to sever the mortgage loan he made to her if he is elected governor.
Christie said it would be up to Michele Brown whether to repay the $46,000 loan early.
"Michele Brown's resignation today does nothing to put to rest questions about Christie's conduct both in and outside of the U.S. Attorney's office. Whether it was illegally laying the groundwork for his gubernatorial campaign from the U.S. Attorney's office with the help of Karl Rove, maintaining a secret financial relationship with the number two at the U.S. Attorney's office during his campaign, or rewarding political cronies with millions of dollars in no-bid contracts, Christie still must answer to serious legal and ethical questions. He can start by demanding the immediate release of public documents from his tenure as U.S. Attorney as requested by the Corzine campaign."
The Star Ledger has an editorial today looking at some of the recent Christie news and what it means for his image:
A high horse is a difficult thing to ride, as Chris Christie is finding out. After building his image as a white knight rescuing New Jersey from the dragon of corruption, Christie is showing some gaps in his armor.
The editorial says that the current loan controversy may well blow over, but they believe that the larger issue for Chris Christie is the politicization of his office and communications with Karl Rove along with the further questions those communications raise:
Of more concern is the disclosure that, while New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, Christie spoke with Karl Rove, political guru to George W. Bush.
Christie says they never discussed legal cases; Rove says they talked about Christie's interest in running for governor. That raises questions about whether Christie took steps toward a campaign while still U.S. Attorney, in possible violation of the Hatch Act.
There's no legitimate reason for Christie -- or any U.S. Attorney -- to have spoken with Rove. While at the White House, Rove bulldozed the wall between the Justice Department and politics, rating U.S. Attorneys for "loyalty" and pushing to fire some who wouldn't mount politically motivated prosecutions. This has given new life to Democrats' claims that Christie unfairly subpoenaed U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) during his 2006 election campaign in a probe that did not result in charges.
The Christie campaign wants people to believe that these were just casual conversations, but the editorial drives home the point that no explanation by Christie serves as a legitimate reason to talk to Karl Rove.
