Christopher Christie

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie make an "important" speech at Noon today before the 200 Club of Mercer County at the Mercer Oaks Golf Club in West Windsor.

The biggest upset of the night was in Morris County, where Freeholder John Inglesino lost his bid for re-election in the Republican primary.  Inglesino, the former Mayor of Rockaway, has been considered one of the young rising stars of Morris County politics, and widely viewed as a likely candidate for higher office in the future. Inglesino has played a leading role in the reform of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where his law firm (he is partner's with former federal Judge and U.S. Attorney Herbert Stern) had been named as  the federal monitor.  

Former Marlboro Councilman Frank Abate was found guilty on six count of corruption today, but a jury acquitted him on seven other counts for accepting services from developers doing business with the Western Monmouth Utilities Authority. Abate, the Democratic candidate for Congress against Richard Zimmer in 1992, served as the WMUA Executive Director.

In a 2003 interview on New Jersey Network, legendary Hudson County insider Paul Byrne offered up some free advice: "Politics 101 in New Jersey: don't tick off the U.S. Attorney." Apparently suffering from a huge shortage of testosterone, it seems the Democratic elite in this very blue state follow Politics 101 rather religiously -- top political leaders have absolutely no interest in talking about Christopher Christie, the federal prosecutor and the state’s #1 Republican.

Attempts to get key Democrats to talk about why the U.S. Department of Justice initially placed the corruption-busting Christie on a list of prosecutors to be fired, and the reason he was eventually taken off the list, were mostly unsuccessful. That means that the advice of Paul Byrne (who pleaded guilty to corruption charges made by Christie's office) trumps any advance preparation to help Jon Corzine beat Chris Christie in the 2009 gubernatorial election.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie was also placed on a January 1, 2006 list by the Department of Justice to be terminated, according to a report in today's Washington Post.  Yesterday's Post reported that Christie was also on a November list to be terminated but ultimately was not.   

by MAX PIZARRO
PoliticsNJ.com

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell on Thursday said the news that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s office included the name of popular U.S. Attorney Chris Christie on a list of U.S. attorneys slated for firing at the very least suggests a political motivation and underscores Gonzales’s ill-fitness for office.

The U.S. Attorney's office says that a Philadelphia Inquirer story that federal prosecutors "flooded Camden phone lines the day of the May 8 councilmanic race with warnings that taking money for votes was a federal crime" is false.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie says his office would never engage in such a practice, which clearly could have been used as a voter-suppression tactic.

The U.S. Attorney's Office was not contacted to authenticate the matter or comment for the story, which implied the office sanctioned or was the source of the recorded phone-message blitz, Christie says.

Former Far Hills Councilman Thomas Greenwald pleaded guilty today to charges that he conspired to launder about $700,000 from loansharking and illegal gambling and faces up to 25 years in prison.  Greenwald admitted that he was introduced to two individuals who he believed to be involved in loansharking and illegal gambling activities. Greenwald later learned that they were undercover FBI agents.

GREENWALD: CHRISTIE APPEARANCE TO BE RESCHEDULED
Budget Chairman Says Homeland Security Panel to Take Testimony
From Christie & Rabner

(TRENTON) - Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Louis D. Greenwald today announced that U.S. Attorney Chris Christie will be unable to testify at tomorrow's committee hearing due to the funeral of the FBI agent who was killed at a bank robbery stakeout in Readington last week.