Gay Marriage

Christie On Gay Marriage: Southern Blacks Would Have Been Psyched To Have Vote On Their Rights

Jillian Rayfield | January 26, 2012, 5:14PM

Black lawmakers in New Jersey have sharply criticized Republican Gov. Chris Christie for comparing a ballot referendum on gay marriage to the civil rights movement thusly: "The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South."

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John Adler

U.S. Attorney Chris Christie's Office Probed Late Rep. John Adler, Case Later Closed

Ryan J. Reilly | October 6, 2011, 12:56PM

Rep. John Adler (D-NJ)

A federal prosecutor in the office of then-U.S. Attorney and current New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) approved an investigation of the late Rep. John Adler (D-NJ) for public corruption in 2007 when Adler was still a state senator -- but later closed the case for lack of evidence.

Adler's heavily redacted FBI file, which TPM obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, indicates that a cooperating witness approached the FBI's Philadelphia division on June 20, 2007 about the awarding of a municipal code inspection contract. The witness apparently thought that then-state senator Adler's support for a 2005 law that placed inspection contracts under "local public contract law" was corrupt.

Adler ran for Congress in 2008 and was elected, taking office in January 2009. The FBI closed the case for lack of evidence just a week before Adler was sworn in to the House of Representatives, the records show.

There were no public reports about the probe at the time and no indication that Adler was ever aware he was under investigation. A person close to Adler told TPM that they did not believe Adler was aware of the investigation and suggested the cooperating witness could have had a bone to pick with Adler.

As U.S. Attorney, Christie was well known for his focus on public corruption (as well as his ability to waste money on official travel).

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Chris Christie

Chris Christie Vetoes $420K 'Snooki Subsidy' Production Credit

Jillian Rayfield | September 26, 2011, 4:42PM

Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) has vetoed a $420,000 "Jersey Shore" production credit that was criticized by local lawmakers as a "fake tanning" tax break and "a terrible, terrible and misguided waste."

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Chris Christie

Chris Christie: No. 1 U.S. Attorney In Wasting Gov't Travel Money

Ryan J. Reilly | November 9, 2010, 10:06AM

NJ Gov. Chris Christie (R)

The Justice Department Inspector General released a report yesterday showing that a select number of U.S. Attorneys sought reimbursement above government lodging rates. At the top of the worst offenders list: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who was U.S. Attorney from 2002 to 2008.

The report doesn't identify Christie or any of the U.S. Attorneys by name. But thanks to stories that came out during his campaign against former Gov. Jon Corzine (D) in 2009, we know that the U.S. Attorney who went over the government-set reimbursement rate the most between 2007 and 2009 was none other than current New Jersey governor.

Specifics of Christie's travel detailed in stories during the gubernatorial race last year as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request from his opponent match with the profile of a federal prosecutor dubbed "U.S. Attorney C" in the Inspector General report.

"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 report found. "The U.S. Attorney provided insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification for 14 of 23 trips (61 percent) that exceeded the government rate."

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Bret Schundler

Christie Administration Swings Back At Schundler Over Firing

Ryan J. Reilly | September 2, 2010, 11:44AM

NJ Gov.-elect Chris Christie

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's administration is firing back at his former Education Commissioner Bret Schundler, who said yesterday that he was defamed by the Governor.

Christie said Schundler was fired because he misled the governor about the events leading up to the state's loss of a $400 million education grant. But a timeline released by Schundler yesterday made the case that he had been honest with Christie about the mistake, and told the Governor not to say at at news conference last week that Schundler had tried to submit additional information to correct the mistake.

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Chris Christie

Schundler: Christie Calling Me A Liar Is 'The Last Straw'

Ryan J. Reilly | September 1, 2010, 2:47PM

Former New Jersey Education Secretary Bret Schundler

In an e-mail and statement provided to reporters this afternoon, former New Jersey Education Commissioner Bret Schundler (R) defended himself against charges by Gov. Chris Christie (R) that Schundler deliberately misled the governor over the events leading up to the state's loss of a $400 million grant. Although he would have been able to accept being fired over the error that cost the state money, Schundler said he was unwilling to accept any further character assassination.

"I will not accept being defamed by the Governor for something he knows I did not do," he wrote. "The Governor called me a liar this week. That was the last straw."

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Bret Schundler

Christie And Schundler Trade Accusations Of Dishonesty After New Jersey Loses $400 Million

Ryan J. Reilly | September 1, 2010, 10:39AM

The charges keep flying in New Jersey as fired Education Commissioner Bret Schundler (R) and Governor Chris Christie (R) continue to spar over whether Schundler should have been fired over his explanations as to why New Jersey lost out on $400 million in federal education funding due to a mistake on a grant application.

Who's telling the truth and who is just trying to cover themselves? TPMMuckraker looks into the charges and counter charges and breaks it down.

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New Jersey

Christie And Schundler Fall Out Over Race To The Top Blunder

Eric Kleefeld | August 30, 2010, 12:40PM

So what should we make of the public spat now occurring between Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) and his former Education Commissioner Bret Schundler, who was fired this past Friday as a result of the errors that resulted int he state losing $400 million in Race to the Top money? Christie's side say that he was misled by Schundler's description of the events -- and Schundler says he never told them what they say he did. Let's review the known events that have occurred up to now.

There is no dispute that New Jersey committed an error in its application for the multi-billion dollar program, which awards grant money to states that compete on the basis of their actions on education reform. The question, then, is who made the error, and what did Christie really know about the process?

In early June, Christie overruled an application that Schundler had formulated from a deal with the state teachers union, on the grounds that the deal had been too favorable to the union and went against his own education agenda. "I made the choice to be bold," Christie said, "not only because I want it to be successful but it's because that's what I agree with."

Then last week, it was revealed that because of an error in the new application, which included budget numbers for the wrong years, New Jersey was docked just enough points to lose out on $400 million in federal funds. (Even worse, the Star Ledger reported that the original draft that Schundler and the union agreed to contained the correct information.)

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Scott Rothstein

Dem Govs Group Blasts Florida GOP Candidate Over $200K Rothstein Donation

Justin Elliott | November 18, 2009, 5:12PM

Scott Rothstein (inset)

The Democratic Governors Association is going after Bill McCollum, the likely GOP nominee in the race for Florida governor, in the wake of TPMmuckraker's report that the Republican Governors Association got a $200,000 from accused fraudster Scott Rothstein.

"Bill McCollum is spending the week with RGA leadership at their annual fundraiser - in fact, this is the same fundraiser where Rothstein contributed his $200K last year," said DGA communications director Emily DeRose in a statement. "McCollum has two choices: Will he ask the RGA to return the fraudulent money, or will he thank them for using it to boost his chances in Florida?"

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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:

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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.

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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.

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Frank Lautenberg

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

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

NJ Gov. Chris Christie (R)

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.

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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.

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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.

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Chris Christie

Did Christie Break DOJ Rules By Pulling Rank On Traffic Stop?

Zachary Roth | September 4, 2009, 5:59PM

NJ Gov. Chris Christie (R)

New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie's spotty driving record is one thing. But what's worse is that he may have violated clear Justice Department guidelines by pulling rank with cops on the scene.

Today we learned about a 2002 episode in which Christie hit a motorcyclist after making a wrong-turn that had him briefly going the wrong way down a one-way street in Elizabeth. The motorcyclist ended up in hospital, but Christie didn't get so much as a ticket. And a police official told the Star Ledger that Christie "did identify himself as U.S. attorney."

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Chris Christie

Christie's Loan: Do We Have The Full Story?

Eric Kleefeld and Zachary Roth | August 26, 2009, 5:13PM

New Jersey Gov.-elect Chris Christie (R)

It's been obscured, understandably, by the Kennedy news. But the story of Chris Christie's ill-advised loan to a subordinate is only getting more interesting -- and something tells us there could be another shoe to drop.

To refresh: Christie, a Republican, currently leads Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine in the New Jersey governor's race. And he's made his zeal as a corruption-fighter a cornerstone of his campaign. But last week, the state's public television network reported that Christie had made a $46,000 loan to an assistant U.S. attorney, Michele Brown. The loan -- given at 5.5 percent interest and secured by a second mortgage on Brown's house -- was made in 2007, while Christie was serving as U.S. attorney, and was Brown's boss. It hardly helped that Christie was forced to admit he hadn't included the loan in his income tax returns or on his financial disclosure reports. (See the mortgage document here -- interestingly, it was duly filed with the Morris County Clerk's office.)

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