A former prosecutor who says he was fired for running afoul of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) allies was recently interviewed by federal prosecutors about the governor, the International Business Times reported Thursday.
Bennett Barlyn, a former Hunterdon County prosecutor who has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Christie, told IBT’s David Sirota that he had been interviewed by two Justice Department investigators on Wednesday at his home in Pennsylvania. One of the agents has been involved in the federal probe of the George Washington bridge closures, according to IBT.
Barlyn has alleged that he was fired in 2010 after filing more than 40 indictments against the Hunterdon County sheriff, who has been a supporter of Christie’s and headed a law enforcement group that endorsed him. Per IBT, the Christie administration stopped the indictments from moving forward. After Barlyn objected, he was fired, and later filed the whistleblower lawsuit.
The New York Times spoke in 2013 with some of the grand jurors who signed off on the indictments. They asserted that there was sufficient evidence to bring charges against the sheriff, Deborah Trout, who allegedly failed to perform basic background checks for her deputies.
Christie’s office denied any wrongdoing. “This truly is some of the most wild-eyed conspiracy theories I’ve heard in a long time,” a spokesman told the Times.
Barlyn told IBT that a “significant” amount of his conversation with the investigators centered on Christie, and he had provided them with documents that he believes to be “critical evidence.”
