Bill Pascrell

Former U.S. Attorney and current Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie is considering an invitation to testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law on June 25.  

The committee originally scheduled the hearing and invited Christie for May 19, but put it off at the urging of Republican members, who argued that its timing could impact the GOP gubernatorial primary.  

The hearing’s focus will be on legislation co-authored by U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) and Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) that creates guidelines for how deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) are awarded.  The political ramifications are obvious, however, as the legislation was inspired by Christie’s awarding of a lucrative federal monitoring contract to his former boss, ex-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. 

Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) says a recent Gannett New Jersey report that 40% of tax dollars spent by government contracts were approved without formal competitive bids shows that Gov. Jon Corzine’s 2005 campaign pledge to reform no-bid contracts is a sham.

“No bid contracts are an open invitation to pay-to-play, something Corzine pretends to care about but has done nothing to stop permanently in all its incarnations and at every level of government,” said DeCroce. “No-bid contracts imply secrecy. Open competitive bidding is the most honest and transparent way to award government contracts. In a state that is a poster child for corruption, it is also the only way  to both regain the public’s trust and wisely spend tax dollars at a time when so many people are struggling financially?"

DeCroce also criticized two New Jersey Democrats who have sponsored legislation to reform the current process used to award federal monitor contracts in deferred prosecution agreements.

“Isn’t it strange that Corzine and his former colleagues in Washington – Congressmen Frank Pallone and Bill Pascrell – love to talk reform and total transparency in government but are invisible when it comes to cleaning up the corrupt mess in their own back yards.

Another Broken Corzine Promise:
Nearly 40 Percent of All Government Contracts Approved Without Bids

            Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce says disclosures that nearly 40 percent of all taxpayer dollars spent by government contracts in New Jersey were approved without formal competitive bids despite Democrat Jon Corzine’s 2005 promise to slash no-bid contracts demonstrates the governor’s “total insensitivity to the desperate need to save taxpayers money.”

            “No bid contracts are an open invitation to pay-to-play, something Corzine pretends to care about but has done nothing to stop permanently in all its incarnations and at every level of government,” asserted DeCroce, R-Morris and Passaic.

Christopher Christie says that congressional hearings scheduled for next week on federal monitors and deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) are part of a calculated, multi-front effort to distract him from his Republican Primary and to give rival Steve Lonegan a better leg-up to win the Republican nomination for Governor.

Christie wouldn't say whether he'd first need to see a subpoena before appearing to testify in the matter of DPAs, the subject of the hearings scheduled as a direct result of controversial federal monitors Christie appointed when he served as U.S. Attorney.

"I haven't gotten any formal invitation to go and testify," Christie said on a conference call with reporters this afternoon. "I learned of the hearing in a press release from (U.S. Rep. Frank) Pallone and (U.S. Rep. Bill) Pascrell," who have sponsored legislation to reform the way the feds apportion federal monitoring contracts as part of DPAs.

"It's another part of a concerted Democratic effort two weeks before a Republican Primary," Christie said of the hearings. "When and if I receive an invitation, I will consider it in light of my schedule."

Pointing to a commitment by the Democratic Governor's Association (DGA) to spend money now targeting presumptive GOP gubernatorial frontrunner Christie and prosecutor-targeted legislation at the state level, Christie said the Democrats are trying to use the press and the levers of government to influence an election rather than undertaking the hard work of government.

"It's the front group to ensure Steve Lonegan is the Republican nominee or the ridiculous legislation introduced by Dick Codey (designed to curtail the political ambitions of prosecutors at the state and county levels) using government funds to negatively influence the Republican Primary," Christie explained. "This is political caddies carrying water and carrying clubs for the governor.

Getty Images Photo

House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law has asked former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to testify at their hearing next week on deferred prosecution agreements and federal monitiors

GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie has been asked to testify at a May 19 congressional hearing on legislation to reform deferred prosecution agreements and the selection of federal monitors.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law will consider a bill sponsored by two New Jersey Democrats after Christie, a former U.S. Attorney, awarded lucrative federal monitor contracts to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and to David Kelley, a former federal prosecutor in New York.

"The use of DPA's has multiplied many times over in recent years as a replacement for criminal prosecutions," said U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson). "But there are no rules, no guidelines, no standards and no accountability." 

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) says the subcommittee will hear the findings of the Government Accounting Office (GAO), the non-partisan the investigative arm of Congress.  The GAO launched their investigation two months ago at the request of the Senate and House Judiciary chairmen.

"Questions and criticisms have been swirling around DPA's and the monitoring contracts and now we will start to get some answers," said Pallone. "If those who issued and received DPA contracts continue to stonewall, maybe the GAO investigation will provide the information we are looking for."

Defense Attorney Ted Wells (center) was among the panelists.

MANHATTAN – Days before a House Judiciary Subcommittee launches hearings on the subject, legal experts at an event hosted by New York University’s School of Law considered whether sufficient checks and balances govern the process by which federal U.S. Attorneys select federal monitors to oversee deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) of corporations.

They also assessed in general the role of politics in prosecution, both at the state and federal level.

“No one should be exercising power without appropriate constraints,” said Michelle Hirshman, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York - but how the government would implement depoliticizing changes to federal monitoring contracts remains a question mark as Congressional lawmakers prepare for hearings.

The multi-paneled discussion unfolded against the backdrop of a gubernatorial bid on the other side of the Hudson River by former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, who during his tenure as New Jersey’s top cop appointed former Attorney General John Ashcroft to a no-bid federal monitoring job potentially worth up to $52 million.

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) at NYU on Friday.

MANHATTAN – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) straightened the backs of New York’s legal community yesterday and created a ripple of discomfort when he railed against deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) and government appointment of federal monitors, forcing the event's organizer out of his chair and into mild-mannered damage control mode.

Pointing to the DPAs administered by the government in fraud and alleged fraud cases perpetuated by Bristol-Myers Squibb, AIG, Zimmer Holdings, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and others – 112 deferred prosecution agreements since 1993 - Pascrell said the process as it currently exists not only diminishes consumer confidence, but breaks down the confidence the average person has in the judicial and prosecutorial system.

Pascrell called the engineers of Medicare fraud at Zimmer Holdings “the real ax murderers of our time,” and charged a weakened U.S. Department of Justice with using deferred prosecution agreements instead of administering real punishment out of a general sense of fear of “dismantling corporations. God forbid that should happen.”

U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) and Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) will speak at a New York University Law School conference on the regulation by federal prosecutors on Friday afternoon.  Their remarks will precede a panel discussion called "Monitoring and Compliance Oversight: When Should Monitors Be Used? How Should Monitors Be Selected? Who Monitors The Monitors?" The two New Jersey Congressmen have introduced legislation to regulate the Justice Department's use of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) -- legislation that the two Democrats began pursuing after revelations that GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie gave the firm of his former boss, John Ashcroft, a monitoring contract with $27 to $52 million when he was U.S. Attorney.

Uncle Floyd's official gubernatorial 2009 campaign button

We lost something of a simpler world somewhere but never lost the toughness and in the vaudeville, piano banging styling he learned as a kid in his family’s Plaza Ballroom in Paterson, Floyd “Uncle Floyd” Vivino forged a lyrical New Jersey foundation for almost everything, including his blue collar, one leg up from hobo junction write-in candidacy for governor this year.

“This wasn’t my idea,” Vivino told PolitickerNJ.com. “I didn’t seek this out. It’s kind of like the same thing that happened to George Washington. He didn’t want to be president. He wanted to be a planter. Me, all I want is my puppets. But they want me.”    

A father of six and resident of Wayne, the 57-year old performance act legend with the ubiquitous porkpie hat lost his gig at Sirius radio in December and ever since has thrown his road act for all ages into overdrive, as always rolling out the ebonies and ivories to entertain Democrats and Republicans alike, pulling nonpartisan double duty for U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) and Somerset County GOP Chairman Dale Florio.

Two hours after Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie outlined a series of proposed ethics reforms, U.S. Reps. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) and Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) emailed a press release announcing their introduction of a bill that seeks to regulate the Justice Department’s use of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs)– legislation that the Congressmen began pursuing after revelations that Christie gave the firm of his former boss, John Ashcroft, a monitoring contract with $27 to $52 million when he was U.S. Attorney.
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“Deferring a prosecution should never be an excuse for a federal prosecutor to defer justice,” said Pascrell in a statement.  “As federal prosecutors have dramatically increased the use of deferred corporate prosecutions in recent years, it is necessary that Congress have the oversight authority to ensure all legal arrangements are being made above the board.”

The Ashcroft contract, which was for monitoring a medical implant company that Christie had charged with giving doctors kickbacks to use its products in lieu of prosecution, has been wielded as a political weapon by Democrats seeking to take Christie’s corruption-busting image down a peg.  It led Pallone to introduce an earlier version of the legislation last year.  Ashcroft, under threat of subpoena, gave at-times heated testimony about the contract in front of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.