Pallone: Christie refuses to testify
By Matt Friedman, PolitickerNJ.com ReporterRepresentative Frank Pallone said that the hearing in which U.S. Attorney Chris Christie and former Attorney General John Ashcroft were to testify in was postponed because the two would not agree to attend.
Although he’s not a member of the committee, Pallone said that based on his experience chairing the Health Committee, the next step may be to issue a subpoena.
“When we want to have a hearing, we contact the people we would like to see testify, and, if they don’t appear, you have to decide how you get them there, whether it’s through a subpoena or other means.”
Christie had told reporters that he would testify if asked by the Justice Department. But Pallone pointed out that there’s no law that says a sitting U.S. Attorney needs permission.
Michael Torra, chief of staff to Rep. Linda Sanchez [D-CA], who chairs the subcommittee, told PolitickerNJ.com earlier today that the committee has not gotten a yes or no answer from the justice department regarding Christie’s testimony and that they chose to delay the hearing while they figured out who from the Justice Department would testify.
Pallone is writing legislation to change the way deferred prosecution agreements are assigned, and said that hearing Christie and Ashcroft testify would help him write it.
Those agreements touched off this controversy after Christie gave Ashcroft a federal monitoring contract worth between $27 and $52 million that critics have compared to the types of no-bid contracts favored by the types of politicians Christie likes to prosecute.
“In order for us to sanction legislation, we need to hear form Christie and Ashcroft as to how they’ve been proceeding, and have them discuss and justify what they’ve been doing – in my opinion its not been justified,” said Pallone. “They’re the ones implementing all these deferred prosecution agreements. If they think they’re justified, why don’t they show up when the committee?”
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Talk About a Limp Wrist
For years, Congressman Pallone has sat by and done nothing while Democrat after Democrat as been indicted or run from office for one scandal or another.
From Governor McGreevey to Congressman Torricelli to Senators' James, Bryant and, most recently, Conigilio - Congessman Pallone has been more the lap dog than the watch dog. All of a sudden he's morally outraged?
This might mean something if Pallone had any credibility or consistency on the issue of public corruption.
It could be..
..because those failed Democrats were shamed from office while Christie continues to hang on.
Deferred prosecutions need to be canceled or reformed
Kudos to our outstanding U.S. Congressman Frank Pallone for aggressively pursuing reform of the deferred prosecution agreement policy.
The congressional hearing has less to do with U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie than it does the deferred prosecution policy itself. This is not a Christie policy but a U.S. Department of Justice policy. The DOJ has the right to organize a coordinated response to the committee's inquiry. It makes little difference if the Honorable Mr. Christie testifies himself or if a ranking official in the DOJ answers the questions.
I would rather see these deferred prosecutions discontinued. I don't want to defer anything. I want more investigations, indictments and convictions. Congressman Pallone should either dismantle the entire program or implement extensive reforms.
If anyone is guilty of anything here, it is the Ashcroft firm by virtue of their blatant greediness. How much monitoring do they intend to provide for a whopping $27 million to $52 million? I think Ashcroft deserves a swift kick in the panse for trying to take advantage of this program. After all, the payouts were the result of an agreement between the corporate offender and the legal firm. This program stinks. It needs to be canceled.
On The Waterfront since 1954
A United States Attorney
is confirmed by the United States Senate. He can't pick and choose when he is or isn't accountable to appear before Congress.
If he refuses to testify, impeach his ass.
Terry You're Just Distracting and Deflecting Attention From....
...the cold hard fact that your hero, Chris Christie, is refusing to testify under oath before a Congressional Investigation.
Christopher Christie is acting like any mobster brought before the bar and refusing to "squeal".
Let's hope that the Congress has the guts to issue subpoenas for both Ashcroft and Christie and that they ask real/tough questions so we can get to the bottom of precisely how these dirty deals came to be.
From Frederick Douglass
Aside From The Concern Troll "Terry Malloy" Are There...
...any out and out Republicans here who think it's OK for a US Attorney (and a former US ATTORNEY GENERAL!!!) to evade testifying under oath before a Congressional Investigation?
From Frederick Douglass
Hilarious
Watching mouth breathing lunatics, panic stricken as the reality of losing the Governorship gets closer and closer, get all hopped up about this non-story makes me laugh out loud.
God they are scared of this guy.
Hey "Freedom Fighter"
You don't get it. Christie is toast; if you Republicans are stupid enough to run him for governor he'll get politically slaughtered.
The issue here is whether, even by the low standards of the corrupt Bush administration, whether Christie should even hold his current job.
If we had a REAL US Attorney who REALLY did a good job there woud have been over a THOUSAND convictions of crooked NJ pols not just a couple of hundred.
There's LOTS of "low hanging fruit" in NJ.
Christie is a partisan hack; nothing more. The Republican party should nominate a real reformer who is actually clean and not connected with machine politics.
The fact is that BOTH parties are DIRTY it's not a partisan issue.
Until we get 100% public financing of all political campaigns at every level the legalized bribery will continue.
Virtually every penny spent by NJ governments at every level is steered by some kind of pay to play connection or cronyism or nepotism or sweetheart deal. It's DIRTY!!!
So cut the partisan crap "Freedom Fighter". Fighting for Christopher Christie isn't fighting for freedom....it's fighting to protect a dirty lowlife political hack who is a creature of a leagally corrupt system.
The fact that the corruption is 100% LEGAL makes it all the more dirty, is that so hard to comprehend?
I assure you that the average NJ citizen who isn't mired in partisan bull crap is far more disgusted with the dirty system of legalized bribery than the hacks who run this state.
Why do you think our state is in the hole financially? NJ is one of the wealthiest places in the USA. There's no shortage of money here. There IS a shortage of honest and competent legislators/mayors/freeholders.
These people have LEGALLY stolen us all blind!!!
So don't tell me that this louse of a US attorney who doesn't have the guts to testify under oath before congress is some kind of angel who deserves to be our next governor.
And, if you can't tell already, I'm pretty disgusted with John Corzine too....he has the power to bring down the whole corrupt "temple" of NJ politics....he has the power to go over the heads of all the legislators and pols and go directly to the PEOPLE to create such a DEMAND for real change that it would pass in a heartbeat.
Corzine still has time to realize that he's caught between two buzzsaws......on one hand the Republican machine wants to politically dismember him for being ineffectual, weak and hypocritical..............and on the other hand the Democratic machine wants to politically cripple him because the last thing they want is a deep and profound change in the system...so they enable the Republicans by undermining him at every turn.
Just about every problem we have in NJ governance can be traced to some kind of legalized corruption....the out and out bribery is conducted by the stupid and the arrogant.....and even most of them probably never get busted. (Ergo the figure of a thousand potential convictions vs two hundred...........and that's not even including the potential for an aggressive use of the RICO statutes).
Getting back to where this started; from a purely partisan perspective....please please nominate Chris Christe....he'd be the easiest person to beat. Especially easy to beat if it takes a subpoena to force him to testify and if he then does so in an evasive and self serving manner. Claims of "executive privilege" or "I was only following orders" won't cut it.
From Frederick Douglass
Nick is right.
Christie is watching his all aspirations go up in smoke. This just went from a damaging ad-- "meet Public Official One, who was entrusted to bust up ethics and then proceeded to repay his unqualified appointment with a $50 million no bid contract" -- to a devastating entire campaign-- "if there's nothing wrong with it, why were you so afraid to testify?"
uh nick...you ok?
Nick...everything OK? Do you need to sit down? Breathe into a paper bag maybe? Jeezus, you must be a hoot at parties when you get going.
The one who doesnt get it is you, my hyperventilating friend. Chris Christie can (and will) beat the pants off Jon Corzine next year, which is exaxtly why the Democrat establishment in NJ ( and their friends at the New York Times apparently) have lined up to try and knock him out. Like most hyperventilating hyperpartisans, your assumption that what you think in your political fever dreams is what average New Jersey citizens think is so wrong its laughable.
The majority of NJ citizens think he's Eliot Ness. This whole Ashcroft tempest in a teapot is inside baseball, beyond most people's understanding. And since he's seen as essentially an honest guy, even people who might normally impute bad motives to another politician will give him a pass. The fact that you and people like you are hanging your hopes on this thin reed shows that either you're delusional ( you) or desperately afraid ( NJ Dems).
Now go lie down and get a cold compress before you break a blood vessel or something.
Framing this issue to
Framing this issue to suggest that Christie himself is evading or afraid of testifying might be a great political hit, but it's pretty baseless in reality. Just because the Senate confirms US Attorneys doesn't mean that the House has an unfettered right to compel them to answer questions about anything it wants.
If the President wants to assert executive privilege over the deliberations behind a particular decision, Christie can't independently decide to testify without waiving the privilege.
You can argue that the idea of executive privilege is wrong, but both Republicans and Democrats hold it up as a great civic virtue when their party holds the White House.
Christie's Integrity Has Been Challenged.....
.......if he wanted to he could wave any "executive privilege" and go to the congressional committee and tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
No one in the Bush administration would dare fire him for doing that.....and if they did, it would reflect poorly on them and make Christie look good.
Now, if the whole truth were damaging to the Bush administration (or to Christie himself) the best political strategy would, I suppose, be to try to cover it all up under the excuse of "executive privilege"......but I don't think the people of New Jersey are all so ignorant or stupid as you do "Freedom Fighter".
You say, "The majority of NJ citizens think he's Eliot Ness. This whole Ashcroft tempest in a teapot is inside baseball, beyond most people's understanding."
Again, what you think is some kind of "inside baseball" that only cogniscenti like you and your cronies can decipher is actually being exposed very nicely in the NYT and the Star Ledger http://blog.nj.com/njv_thurman_hart/2008/02/dpa_a_model_for_abuse.html#m... and by our friend, the consummate blogger, Huntsu at Blue Jersey.
These questions in re Christie aren't beyond the comprehension of New Jersey citizens. Don't underestimate the intelligence of the rank and file...they just might be a lot smarter than you imagine.
Do you deny that cronyism and legalized bribery is "par for the course" in NJ politics? Do you deny the average NJ citizen who isn't "connected" or directly benefiting from the legalized corruption/legalized bribery is pissed off and disgusted with it?
Or do you think the status quo is just fine?
As for Christie being "Elliot Ness"; that's a sick joke....I wish it was actually true......again, a truly aggressive honest prosecutor would have nailed a thousand crooked pols in this state...not just a couple of hundred.......and most of that number would have been Democrats!
In any event, time will tell. If you're right nothing will change and the state will continue to be a cesspool of corruption and if I'm right; there will be a grass roots movement that changes things from the bottom on up to the top.
Let's give it a few years and see what happens.
One thing's for sure; unless the stealing stops, the quality of life in NJ will continue to slide.
Kleptocracies don't thrive indefinitely.
From Frederick Douglass
You guys don't get it...
This story truly IS inside baseball, try explaining it to the average voter and they will fall asleep. With Corzine's numbers in the gutter and the Democrat controlled Legislatured not faring much better the people are going to look for a new option. You can put all throw all this legislative-technical nonsense at the voting masses, but when they start seeing Christie's record of indictments and his work ethic everything else will become white noise.
You can write all the extensive paragraphs you want to about the philisophical ramifications, but when it comes down to it these elections are about grass roots. With Christie's record and the state's disgust with the Democrat machine that has been running things for over a decade, the people won't care about these confusing-politico accusations.
Beowulf....picture a 30 second spot nailing...
Chris Christie for giving his ex boss a 40 million dollar sweetheart deal....and then refusing to testify under oath about it. Like any mobster adhering to "Omerta", Christie refuses to come clean to the authorities.
And there are a dozen more where that came from that are far more damaging.
Christie is toast....and rightly so on a substantive basis. No cheap shots required.
As a partisan Democrat I urge you to: Please please please run him!!!
Any competent decent Democrat opposing him will play hardball and make my critique look weak in comparison.
What you really don't get is that I truly want a better candidate who would REALLY be anti-corruotion since that would force the Dems to "see that" and "raise" you one even better!
My agenda is to get rid of the corruption, legalized and illicit. Period. (BOTH PARTIES ARE COMPLICIT!!!)
It's a dirty rotten shame that, on a political site like this, hardly anyone seems to be pissed off about the corruption in NJ governance.
I assure you, the people of NJ are not as ignorant, stupid, passive, apathetic about, or resigned to, the corrupt status quo as you so cynically presume.
As for the currupt "Democratic machine"; you'll get no argument from me; but you must admit that the Republican machine is at least as corrupt, if not moreso. It's a different style of corruption but the stench is the same.
Corzine is guilty of many errors in my opinion; but there's no one who can say he's corrupt. Corzine is redeemable; though I would hope he yields to a real reformer if he's not interested in doing that job. Your guy Christie is a slicker version of Joe Ferriero....nothing more.
From Frederick Douglass