Anne Milgram

U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, right, and FBI Director Weysan Dun last year in Trenton on the day Mims Hackett was arrested.

NEWARK - The steps of City Hall.

That was the image U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie used to tell the bad ending story of former Assemblyman and Orange Mayor Mims Hackett, who twice pleaded guilty today: once in federal court to one count of attempted extortion, and once in state Superior Court to a charge of official misconduct.

Flanked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office by state Attorney General Anne Milgram and state FBI Director Weysan Dun, Christie made special mention of the fact that it was outside City Hall that Hackett took the bribe which started his fall.

"This is a public servant who decided that $5,000 was a good down payment for him to sell his office," said Christie.

The defiant U.S. Attorney recalled critics who questioned his office’s motives when Hackett and ten other elected officials first appeared in court last year to answer to federal corruption charges.

State Sens. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) and Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex) said that Democrats on the Senate State Government Committee turned down their request to force Attorney General Anne Milgram to testify before the State Government Committee to answer questions about her investigation into deleted e-mails during Gov. James E. McGreevey’s administration.

Former Bogota mayor and conservative activist Steve Lonegan said today that the Attorney General’s office is investigating him, and that he thinks it reeks of political retribution.

Lonegan is calling for the legislature to appoint an independent prosecutor to look into the matter and wants the U.S. Attorney to conduct a civil rights investigation on his behalf. 

Lonegan, who has spent the last week in the media spotlight after he was arrested for trespassing while protesting against the governor’s asset monetization plan outside of his Cape May County Town Hall meeting at a school in Middle Township, said that arrest was merely “the tip of the iceberg” in a campaign of intimidation on the part of the Corzine administration and Attorney General Anne Milgram.   

According to Lonegan, the investigation started at the peak of his own campaign against two ballot measures that went down in defeat in November’s elections.

Conservative activist Steve Lonegan says the state Attorney General is investigating him, alleging that while he has not been contacted, records from the Bogota Borough Hall have been subpoenaed and six unnamed associates of the former Mayor have been interviewed.

The former Bogota mayor said he suspects that the investigation is political retribution, and began during his campaign against a ballot initiative supported by Gov. Jon Corzine.

"I'm not afraid of Jon Corzine. I'm not afraid of the Attorney General’s office. They can come up with all kinds of phony claims if they want and intend to do so,” said Lonegan. “I challenge them to come out of the shadows and tell us what they're all about.”

Public Advocate Ronald Chen has filed a brief in state appeals court case challenging Attorney General Anne Milgram’s directive limiting the ability of nonpartisan groups to assist voters at the polls on Election Day.  The directive stops the distribution of printed information within 100 feet of the entrance to polling places on Election Day – the only exception is for exit polling, permitted if pollsters register with election officials at least two weeks before the election. 

The new Chief of Staff to Attorney General Anne Milgram is Denelle Waynick, a former Rutgers Law School Professor and attorney at Gibbons,Del. Deo,Dolan,Griffinger & Vecchione, a large North Jersey firm.

Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. wants the state Attorney General to investigate the possible violation of Steve Lonegan’s first amendment rights. Lonegan, a former Bogota Mayor and possible 2009 candidate for Governor, was arrested on Sunday outside Middle Township High School where Gov. Jon Corzine was holding a town meeting.

Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee John Adler today accusing him of caving into political pressure and watering down a call for an investigation into Gov. Corzine's relationship with Rocco Riccio, the brother-in-law of his ex-girlfriend/paramour/companion Carla Katz.

But Senate Democrats say that Wilson's letter is based on a misconstrued premise.

On Monday, news outlets originally reported that Adler called on the Attorney General Anne Milgram to investigate the $15,000 gift Corzine made to Riccio after he was forced out of Turnpike Authority job by the Corzine administration. This took place at the confirmation hearing of comptroller nominee Matthew Boxer, who was present at a meeting with Riccio. But Adler's letter to the Attorney General sent later that day only asked for an investigation into whether Riccio illegally looked into tax records, and news acocunts amended accordingly.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman John Adler, the Democratic candidate for Congress in the third district, today asked state Attorney General Anne Milgram to “initiate a thorough criminal review” of Governor Jon Corzine’s $15,000 gift to Rocco Riccio, the brother-in-law of his ex-girlfriend and the President of the state’s largest public employees union.  Adler wants to know if any laws were broken.

Adler’s call comes fourteen months after Corzine told a Gannett New Jersey editorial board that he would not pick Adler as his Attorney General: “John Adler will not be my attorney general. We will pick the very best individual, with the skills to make sure we carry out an executive order to clean up politics in this state." – Jon Corzine, speaking at a Gannett New Jersey debate (Tamari, Asbury Park Press, 10/12/05)