Jennifer Borg

Sources say that the Department of Law and Public Safety is not expected to file criminal charges against Jeff Pillets, a Pulitzer-nominated investigative reporter at The Record, after reviewing a report from the Department of Environmental Protection that Pillets removed public documents.  David Wald, a spokesman for Attorney General Anne Milgram, had no comment on the Pillets matter.  Written statements from Elaine Makatura, a spokesman for DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson, and Pillets, are essentially the same -- except on one point: the DEP says Pillets initially denied having the missing files, while Pillets says he was a model of cooperation.

The following is a written statement from Makatura, send to PolitickerNJ.com yesterday and today:

North Jersey Media Group Vice-President and General Counsel Jennifer Borg said that, to her knowledge, Bergen Record reporter Jeff Pillets is not under investigation by anyone -- period.

“I am unaware of any investigation being conducted by the state or any other authority.  And to overstate it, nobody at North Jersey media group is aware of any investigation by the state or any other authority.  So there’s nothing for me to respond to,” said Borg. “We have not been contacted by any state or authority, and Jeff has not been contacted by any state or authority.  It’s a non-issue.  And if the state is indeed investigating Jeff, I wish someone would tell us about it.” 

Jennifer Borg, who runs the legal department at The Record and is part of the family that owns the newspaper, continues to decline comment on the state probe of reporter Jeff Pillets, who allegedly removed state documents from the Department of Environmental Protection.  There is speculation that The Record and Pillets has retained a criminal defense attorney -- if the reporter is charged with stealing public documents, he could face time in prison -- but Borg, Pillets and his editor have not responded to numerous inquiries.  It's been a week since Pillets filed a story.