TPMMuckraker
Chris Christie: October 2009

« Chris Christie: September 2009

Chris Christie: November 2009 »

Chris Christie

Did FOIA Request On Financial Ties To Christie Prompt Top Aide's Departure?

Zachary Roth | October 27, 2009, 1:16PM


Fmr. top aide Michele Brown (inset) and NJ Gov. Candidate Chris Christie (R)

Hat tip Marcy Wheeler at Firedoglake...

Did Chris Christie's top aide resign as a top prosecutor this summer in order to prevent information about her financial ties to Christie from becoming public? Let's look at the facts:

Read more »

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)
Topics: Chris Christie, Jon Corzine, Justice Department, Michele Brown, U.S. Attorneys

Chris Christie

Lautenberg To DOJ: Christie-Brown Ties Raise "Serious Concerns"

Zachary Roth | October 21, 2009, 5:27PM


Fmr. top aide Michele Brown (inset) and NJ Gov. Candidate Chris Christie (R)

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has released a letter he sent today to the Justice Department calling for an investigation into the possible politicization of the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey in the service of Chris Christie's campaign for governor.

In the letter to Mary Patrice Brown, who runs DOJ's internal ethics unit, Lautenberg, the chair of the Jon Corzine campaign, focuses on ties between Christie, a Republican, and his former top aide Michele Brown, which Lautenberg says raise "serious concerns." We laid out many of those ties here.

Read more »

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (2) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)
Topics: Chris Christie, DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, Frank Lautenberg, Jon Corzine, Justice Department, Mary Patrice Brown, Michele Brown, U.S. Attorneys

Chris Christie

Beyond Brown: Did Another Top Christie Aide Politicize Prosecutor's Office To Help Former Boss?

Zachary Roth | October 21, 2009, 2:35PM


U.S. prosecutor Ralph Marra

So far, the charges that Chris Christie turned the U.S. attorney's office into a "branch office" of his campaign for governor, as Jon Corzine put it yesterday, have centered on the relationship between Christie and Michele Brown, a close friend and top aide to Christie when he was US attorney. Brown reportedly took several actions this year that benefited Christie's GOP bid for governor, and in 2007 got an undisclosed $46,000 loan from him.

But did another of Christie's former top aides also put the prosecutor's office in the service of his one-time boss's political aspirations? Ralph Marra, who until this month was the acting U.S. attorney, has several times appeared to insert himself into the political back-and-forth over the race, appearing to pointedly criticize a request by the Corzine campaign for public information, and even triggering a Justice Department probe into whether he made inappropriately political public comments that may have boosted Christie.

Read more »

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (4) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)
Topics: Chris Christie, Jon Corzine, Michele Brown, Ralph Marra, U.S. Attorneys

Frank Lautenberg

Lautenberg Calls For Federal Probe Into Whether Christie Politicized Prosecutor's Office

Zachary Roth | October 20, 2009, 5:42PM


Former US Attorney Chris Christie

Sen. Frank Lautenberg is calling for a federal investigation into whether former U.S. attorney Chris Christie used his office for political gain, reports the AP.

The New York Times reported this morning that a close Christie aide and friend in the office took several steps that benefited Christie's campaign for governor, after receiving a $46,000 loan from him. We took a broader look at the case that Christie may have improperly politicized the U.S. attorney's office here.

Read more »

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (6) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)
Topics: Chris Christie, Frank Lautenberg, Jon Corzine, Michele Brown, U.S. Attorneys

Chris Christie

Did Christie Politicize U.S. Attorney's Office?

Zachary Roth | October 20, 2009, 2:00PM


NJ Gov. Candidate Chris Christie (R) and his fmr. top aide Michele Brown

Back in August, when it was revealed that Chris Christie had given an unreported $46,000 loan to Michele Brown, his top deputy at the US attorney's office, we had a sense there was more to the story than we'd yet learned.

And today's revelations from the New York Times help fill out the picture. Simply put, a close look at the unusually close relationship between the two -- as well as at other evidence that Christie retains ties to his former colleagues in the prosecutors' office -- strongly suggests that in the service of his bid for governor, he may have improperly politicized an office that's supposed to be an independent administrator of justice.

Read more »

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (15) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)
Topics: Chris Christie, Jon Corzine, Michele Brown, Ralph Marra, Robert Menendez, U.S. Attorneys

Chris Christie

Christie's Top Aide Got Loan Then Helped His Campaign: Report

Zachary Roth | October 20, 2009, 10:03AM


Fmr. top aide Michele Brown (inset) and NJ Gov. Candidate Chris Christie (R)

Did a top prosecutorial deputy to Chris Christie improperly use her position earlier this year to boost his run for governor -- despite the candidate's recent claim that she had done nothing to help his campaign?

The New York Times has assembled some pretty good evidence.

Read more »

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (8) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)
Topics: Chris Christie, Jon Corzine, Michele Brown, U.S. Attorneys

« Chris Christie: September 2009

Chris Christie: November 2009 »

Featured at TPMMuckraker

Masthead

Recommended Reader Posts

Follow us!

Most Popular

TPM Stories Now Surging on

TPM Top News