New Jersey Democrats are continuing to pile on Republican gubernatorial nominee and former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, with more accusations that he’s violated the law by mixing politics and the prosecutor’s office.
Dem Congressman Frank Pallone has put out a statement seizing on a comment by Christie from this past February, which was just posted online and publicized by Fire Dog Lake:
Said Christie:
“You know, we’re going to ferret out waste and fraud and abuse in the government. I think you know I’ll do that better than anybody. I’ve got a group of assistant U.S. attorneys sitting down in Newark still doing their job. But let me tell you, they are watching the newspapers. And after we win this election, I’m going to take a whole group of them to Trenton with me and put them in every one of the departments because they saw a lot of waste and abuse being investigated while we were in the U.S. Attorney’s office that didn’t rise to the level of a crime. So I told them, the good news is, when we get to Trenton we don’t have to worry about beyond a reasonable doubt anymore.”
In his press release, Pallone said Christie has, by his own admission, promised jobs in his administration to federal employees who are barred from political activities:
“The more we learn about Mr. Christie’s penchant for mixing campaign politics with law enforcement the more evidence there is that he has broken the law multiple times,” said Congressman Pallone. “Breaking the law is bad enough for any federal employee, but it is especially bad by those with the responsibility of enforcing the law impartially and responsibly.”
Just last week it was disclosed that Mr. Christie held secret talks with Karl Rove to plot his gubernatorial campaign while Christie was still a US Attorney. Just the other day it was revealed that he failed to disclose a loan made to a subordinate in the US Attorney’s Office and he failed to pay taxes on the interest income.
“Now Mr. Christie is essentially acknowledging that he has a political plan that revolves around former employees – who are all barred from political activities, Congressman Pallone stated. “He should disclose who they are, what they communicate with each other and what plans they are making. Mr. Christie is no longer responsible for enforcing the law but he isn’t supposed to break it.”
Christie has been running for office largely on a reputation of having been an independent-minded, corruption-busting U.S. Attorney in a state where corruption is a big problem. Now that some weaknesses have shown up in that image, the Dems are seizing the opportunity to rip away that image as much as they can.
