Ralph Marra

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) thinks that Republicans will be looking for a new gubernatorial candidate before the ballots go to print in early October.  In a NJ Voices Op-Ed, Lesniak opines that First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown may have attended political meetings with the GOP candidate while Christopher Christie was still U.S. Attorney, suggests that a Justice Department probe of Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra will conclude that "Christie mixed politics and law enforcement," and that Brown gave Christie "a heads up" on the July political arrests.

Just a month ago, there was considerable speculation that Gov. Jon Corzine would be the one to drop out - WNBC-TV's Brian Thompson reported that South Jersey Democratic leader George Norcross was urging the governor to end his re-election bid, and sources say that at least one other powerful Democratic leader had given Corzine until the end of the summer to repair his electoral woes.  Corzine made it clear he had no intention of dropping out, and Republicans close to Christie say he's not going anywhere either.

Governor Corzine’s campaign today continued to insinuate that there is an improper relationship between Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie and members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which he ran until December of last year.  

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), who is running as the Democrats’ candidate for lieutenant governor, said that First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown – who is currently paying Christie back for a $46,000 mortgage he took out on her house two years ago – should be removed from the task of retrieving the Corzine campaign’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

"The United States Attorney's office is filled with qualified professionals," said Weinberg.  "Based on what we already know and on today's report by the Associated Press that Christie is refusing to answer who he's still in contact with at the U.S. attorney's office and how informed he is about day-to-day activities there, we are simply saying we need someone not caught up in this controversy to work on the FOIA requests."

Governor Corzine’s campaign continues to press the U.S. Attorney’s office on FOIA requests it says they’ve stalled on fulfilling.

The campaign today filed eight administrative challenges to the Department of Justice’s Office of Information and Privacy in order to “break five months of stonewalling” on 18 of its requests regarding Corzine’s opponent Chris Christie, the former U.S. Attorney.  

“The United States Attorney’s office has many fine, dedicated, professional lawyers,” said Corzine strategist Tom Shea.  “But, in light of recent reports that Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra is under investigation to determine if he has used the office to help further the Christie campaign, Second Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown has an ongoing financial relationship with Christie and Christie was communicating with Karl Rove about his run for governor from that office, we feel it is even more important we receive the information requested.”

President Barack Obama submitted his first seven nominations for U.S. Attorneys on June 4.   The U.S. Senate confirmed five of the seven on August 7, but New Jersey's Paul Fishman was not one of them.  The five who were confirmed came from New York (Southern District), Alabama, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Vermont. 

Until the Senate confirms Fishman, which is unlikely to be any earlier than next month, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra will remain in the post he's held since Christopher Christie resigned on December 1, 2008 to seek the Republican nomination for Governor.  The Associated Press, citing two unnamed sources, reported earlier this week that the Department of Justice is investigating whether Marra made inappropriate public comments during a high profile announcement of public corruption cases that might have boosted the Christie campaign.

Representatives of New Jersey's two U.S. Senators, Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) and Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), continue to predict a smooth confirmation for Fishman, who jointly recommended his appointment to Obama in February.  But Lautenberg and Menendez have not been able to get the Democratic-controlled Senate to move forward on Fishman.  They have not said why.

Michael Chertoff, who was New Jersey's U.S. Attorney in the 1990's, says it's a stretch to accuse Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra of trying to help Chris Christie's campaign for governor. The Record's Herb Jackson asked the former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security about reports that the Justice Department was investigating Marra's comments:

Q: Did Marra cross a line with his comments?

Chris Christie's unreported $46k person loan to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown has become an issue in the gubernatorial campaign

In a statement released by Gov. Jon Corzine's campaign today, strategist Tom Shea says that "serious questions remain about the loan Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie gave to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown, and pushed the U.S. Attorney's office to move quickly in the release of information the campaign requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

"Chris Christie had at least four opportunities to comply with the law and disclose this loan, yet he failed to do so each and every time. There seems to be no mystery that he was determined to keep it secret," said Shea.  The question is, why?"

"Christie and the U.S. Attorney's Office need to begin providing answers. They can start by immediately providing the specific dates of the promotions and salary increases Christie gave Michele Brown," Shea said.  "We have filed a Freedom of Information Act request requesting this information, but our previous requests for such basic public information have been bottled up by Christie's friends for more than five months. The public shouldn't have to wait a day longer."

Shea questioned how Brown, the second ranking official in the federal prosecutor's office, can treat public corruption investigations in a non-partisan fashion "when she remains indebted - literally - to the Republican candidate for governor?"

Former Assemblyman Morton Salkind (D-Marlboro) was sentenced to one year in prison today on tax evasion charges.  He will turn himself in on October 5.

In 2008, Salkind admitted he made false accounting entries for a real estate development in Rockaway Township. 

"The prison sentence is appropriate and just," said Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra. "Salkind is a 77-year-old man who is going to federal prison and who has already paid the United States $11.5 million in taxes, penalties and interest. This is a very good outcome thus far."

Salkind, a former mayor and state Lottery Commissioner, has agreed to pay about $17 million in back taxes, interest and penalties.

Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr., released a statement tonight in answer to charges from the Corzine campaign that his office has been slow to act on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) queries concerning the renure of former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, now a Republican candidate for governor.

"The United States Attorney’s Office has received a large number of FOIA requests from the Corzine Campaign," said Marra. "The requests have resulted in an unprecedented response from this office, including hundreds of employee hours from paralegals, attorneys, administrative staff and our summer interns, and thousands of pages of documents and other materials.  These particular requests have been prioritized ahead of the numerous other FOIA requests the office receives and processes on a regular basis.

"The U.S. Attorney’s Office has worked as professionally and expeditiously as it can to fulfill all the requests and has been in virtually daily contact with the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) in Washington to accomplish this burdensome and continuous task.

Angela Bellizzi, the supervisor of permits and connection fees for the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority, pleaded guilty today to charges that she accepted cash payments from a cooperating witness in exchange for falsifying and/or approving fraudulent sewer permit applications.

According to a plea agreement announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, Bellizzi admitted that she extorted corrupt payments by agreeing to falsify "permit applications in return for payments, or instructed the contractor on how to falsify permit applications that would be approved by her in return for payments."

The Bellizzi plea comes from separate, ongoing public corruption investigations in Jersey City, and is not connected to the July 23 arrests of public officials in Jersey City and other municipalities, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.