TPMMuckraker
Chris Christie

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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Topics: Bill McCollum, Bob McDonnell, Charlie Crist, Chris Christie, Democratic Governors Association, Haley Barbour, Republican Governors Association, Scott Rothstein

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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Topics: Chris Christie, Jon Corzine, Michele Brown, U.S. Attorneys

Chris Christie

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

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

Former US Attorney Chris Christie

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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Topics: Chris Christie, Justice Department

Chris Christie

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

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

Former US Attorney Chris Christie

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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Topics: Chris Christie

U.S. Attorneys

Did Christie Play Politics With Probe? U.S. Attorney Docs Add To Questions

Zachary Roth | August 12, 2009, 4:28PM

Those newly released documents from the U.S. attorney firings raise a few questions about the Republican who may be his party's highest profile electoral contender this year.

That's Chris Christie, the former U.S. attorney from New Jersey, who's also leading incumbent Jon Corzine in that state's race for governor.