Marra says complaint is 'wholly trumped up'

By Editor | August 25th, 2009 - 10:05pm

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Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra calls reports of an internal ethics investigation into his comments "a wholly trumped up complaint" and say that his office has been "unfairly drawn into a political campaign through the barrage of FOIA requests," according to an e-mail he sent to employees that was obtained by PolitickerNJ.com.

Marra made his comments following the resignation of First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown, who became an issue in the race for governor after the disclosure that she received a $46,000 personal loan from Christopher Christie, the GOP gubernatorial candidate and the former U.S. Attorney. The clearly annoyed Marra referred to the loan as a "purported controversy."

Marc Larkins will become the Acting First Assistant tomorrow, and Marc Ferzan will serve as Acting Executive Assistant and as Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney for the South.

"We owe it to the public and ourselves to keep the work of the office going at our usual pace and at our usual standard of excellence," Marra wrote.

The full text of Marra's e-mail:

From: Marra, Ralph (USANJ)
To: USANJ-ALL_NJUSAO_Personnel
Sent: Tue Aug 25 16:51:07 2009
Subject: Michele Brown

Everyone:

It's with great regret that I've accepted Michele's resignation as an AUSA, effective today. Michele has had a distinguished 18 year career in this Office and has been a wonderful friend and colleague. We wish her the best.

Effective tomorrow Marc Larkins will take over as Acting First Assistant and Marc Ferzan will wear the hats of Acting Executive Assistant and Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney for the South.

I know how distracting these transitions can be and this one has been made more difficult as the Office has been unfairly drawn into a political campaign through the barrage of FOIA requests; the purported controversy over Michele's personal loan, and a wholly trumped up (and then apparently leaked) complaint, reportedly about my generic and general comments at the Bid Rig press conference and the timing of the Bid Rig takedown.

We owe it to the public and ourselves to keep the work of the Office going at our usual pace and at our usual standard of excellence.

Ralph

Tags:

Is this for real?

Submitted by FanovFlorio on August 25, 2009 - 9:38pm.

Has Marra flipped or what? This email sounds like it was written by Christie's campaign. Seems to me Marra just gave the DOJ even more justification to investigate his partiality and the Corzine campaign more ammunition to use against the US Attorney's office.

Now Florio...

Submitted by ImWithStupid on August 25, 2009 - 10:06pm.

Tell us... which one of the trash/scum sent to jail by the US Atty do you think was unfairly put in jail? Bryant? Hmmm. Coniglio?... Hmmm... Lynch? Hmmm... James? Hmmmm... Steele? Hackett? Come on now... tell us. You have suggested people are being unfairly sent to jail in a political witch hunt. Give it a rest. Corzine is complete and total Wall Street trash, selfishly out to destroy others since he has failed at his job (high taxes, poor services, structural deficit, highest in the region unemployment, mismanaged pension funds, a stupid toll increase borrowing plan... ) Keep up your hysterical rantings about Michele. Be a Corzine apologist... keep up the good work. Noone in the real world will vote on Michele... they will vote on Corzine's pathetic public record of failure.

"You have suggested people

Submitted by FanovFlorio on August 25, 2009 - 11:12pm.

"You have suggested people are being unfairly sent to jail in a political witch hunt." I've only suggested that this email, in addition to Marra's public statements, may be used by the DOJ in its own internal investigation of Marra's conduct. In fairness to Marra I assume this email was leaked by someone in the US Attorneys office and not intended for public release. Nevertheless I think Marra could have shown a little discretion before making gratuitous comments like "wholly trumped up complaint" in referring to the DOJ internal investigation. I doubt the DOJ staffers investigating the complaint would appreciate those comments. Anyway, given the easy leakage of emails in these times, I should think that anyone with political and/or legal experience would know better than to include those comments in an email that likely would be made public. I don't have as much experience in practical politics as others who post here, but if I was writing that email I would have written it the same way without the third paragraph. I do believe that the US Attorney's office is stonewalling the FOIA requests to protect Christie, and that Michele Brown had a clear conflict of interest if she was in any way involved with responding to those requests.

@ImWithStupid

Submitted by FormerlyAnonymous on August 26, 2009 - 6:06am.

Christie backers always do this -- if you suggest that something Christie did outside of prosecutions was wrong (say, a loan to a subordinate or engaging in political activity) you all always bring it back to prosecutions.

A cop who puts drug dealers in jail but steals their money is still a crook.

A Mayor who cleans up a city but uses public money to take care of his mistress is still unethical.

A federal prosecutor who puts politicians behind bars but engages in political activity is still breaking the law.

Good stuff, Formerly.

Submitted by commonsensenj on August 26, 2009 - 8:54am.

I like to compare it to the smug arrogance with which Nicholson's character in "A Few Good Men" abuses his power: "you can't handle the truth" and "all you did was weaken a nation today, son."

I'm not your son and your gubernatorial campaign is going down in flames, you son of a b*tch.

And if you tried really, really hard you could not find someone who is getting his just desserts more than the big, bad bully.

It's unfortunate he brought down good people like Michele Brown and Ralph Marra with him. But they were consenting adults, and now it's time for the Kool-Aid hangover.

A Reach

Submitted by SDem on August 26, 2009 - 9:14am.

More fodder for the DOJ? Sounds to me like we need more people like Marra. Here is a guy who isn't taking BS from politicians. It is pretty clear to me that it is the politicos who are trying to influence an election by not allowing the US Attorney to do his/her job. Florio you have it backwards this isn't Alice's Wonderland!

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