Chris Christie

WASHINGTON -- New Jersey Reps. Frank Pallone and Bill Pascrell say they aren’t satisfied by today’s Congressional hearings on deferred prosecution agreements.

The two Democrats hope to investigate the matter further and will continue to push the committee, on which they do not sit, to get U.S. Attorney Chris Christie to testify.

WASHINGTON -- United States Attorney Christopher Christie didn’t attend today’s Congressional hearing, but his presence loomed over the proceedings.

The hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law was broken up into two panels: the first consisted of former Attorney General John Ashcroft, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias, University of Virginia Law Professor Brandon Garrett and attorneys Timothy Dickinson and George Terwilliger III. The second panel consisted of New Jersey Democrats Bill Pascrell and Frank Pallone.

Republican members of the committee stressed that deferred prosecution agreements were vital to keeping companies that employ thousands solvent, and noted that monitors were not paid with taxpayer dollars. Democrats questioned whether corporations were getting a separate form of justice from blue collar criminals.

John Ashcroft displays copies of The Record to defend Chris Christie's corruption-busting record: Getty Images Photo
WASHINGTON -- In a combative exchange with Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), former Attorney General John Ashcroft jumped to U.S. Attorney Chris Christie’s defense.

After Sanchez asked whether the selection process complied with the type of guidelines the Justice Department laid out yesterday, Ashcroft said that she was implying that Christie was a “law violator.”

“I really don’t believe that Mr. Christie is a law violator. His record as a prosecutor is an outstanding record,” Ashcroft said.

Ashcroft then held up two copies of Bergen Record headlines about Christie’s public corruption convictions and insinuated that there were partisan motivations behind today’s hearing.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft at a Justice Department news conference in 2003

WASHINGTON - Testifying at a House Judiciary subcommittee meeting today, former Attorney General John Ashcroft mainly explained why he’s qualified to be a federal monitor, but had some tough words for his critics.

Ashcroft compared the type of criticism he’s faced for being assigned a lucrative federal monitor contract by U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to the political attacks he faced during his term as Attorney General. He did not single out any of his critics by name.

“As you may or may not recall there were many people who attacked me in the way that I chose to defend America from terrorists. Those assaults did not shake my commitment to protecting American lives through terrorism attacks,” he said. “Similarly, a monitor should be immune to pressure and should not allow attacks from whatever sources that contaminate the cause of justice. I will not allow external pressures to compromise my responsibilities as a monitor.”

WASHINGTON -- If the Justice Department hoped to allay Democrats’ concerns about deferred prosecution agreements by changing their guidelines yesterday, they weren’t successful.

At hearings today that were first for called by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), Democrats said they weren’t satisfied with the proposed rule changes that would take some power out of the hands of U.S. Attorneys in deciding who gets assigned monitoring contracts.

Pascrell called for hearings after it was reported that U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie gave an oversight contract to former Attorney General John Ashcroft worth $28-52 million.

Just one day before former Attorney General John Ashcroft was set to testify in Congress about the federal oversight contract he was given by U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, the Justice Department banned federal prosecutors from selecting corporate monitors, the Star-Ledger reports.

New Jersey Democratic Representatives Frank Pallone and Bill Pascrell will testify on Tuesday at the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law’s hearing on deferred prosecution agreements.

Pascrell had requested the hearings in November, after it was reported that U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie assigned his former boss, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, to an a federal oversight contract with a medical implant device company worth between $27 and $52 million.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft will testify at a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, March 11, regarding a multi-million dollar federal monitoring contract he received after he left the Bush Administration.

NEWARK -Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James Lawyers for former Newark Mayor Sharpe James and Tamika Riley fought back in federal court today against depictions of their clients as intertwining strands of corruption in a fraud case the feds say James and Riley perpetrated against the people of Newark's struggling South Ward. 

Arguing on behalf of James, 72, defense attorney Tom Ashley said it was a Newark City Council top-heavy with James detractors, including the mayor's arch-nemesis Cory Booker, that repeatedly affirmed the sale of city properties to Riley.

"He's charged with unduly influencing the (Department of Economic Housing Development) on behalf of his girlfriend," Ashley told 19 jurors in the federal courtroom of District Judge William Martini on Monday afternoon. "There is no evidence, and we will fight it to the last day."

Delivering an opening argument against former Newark Mayor Sharpe James in U.S. District Court today, the prosecution contended that James failed to disclose the nature of his relationship with Tamika Riley.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says James, who is standing trial for fraud, never revealed that Riley was his girlfriend, even as he steered nine city properties to her at $46,000 before selling them to private developers for a total of $665,000.