Ralph Marra

NEWARK - Standing in front of reporters today at the Peter Rodino Federal Building, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra said incidents like today's massive-scale corruption takedown of elected and public officials could be avoided if there were a more aggressive political will.

"There are easily reforms that could be made that would make our job easier," said Marra. "But the few people who want to change it seem to get shouted down."

New Jersey's top cop, successor to GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie, confirmed Special Agent Weysan Dun's statement about the investigation going back ten years.

"The case spans Mr. Christie's tenure and now runs into my tenure," said Marra.  

Former Passaic City Councilman Jonathan Soto was sentenced to 75 months in prison following his conviction on federal corruption charges.  Earlier this year, a jury found Soto, a former Republican Municipal Chairman, guilty of all 23 counts in an indictment that accused him of taking $44,500 in bribes for himself, former Mayor Sammy Rivera, and former Councilman Marcellus Jackson.

He was also convicted of one extortion charge connected to his role in bribing other public officials, including former Pleasantville Board of Education member Jayson Adams, and one count of procession of illegal drugs.

"Soto joins the long line of politicians going to prison for putting public office up for sale," said Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra. "We once again hope that a clear message has been sent to those in public life, that if you corrupt your office you will be brought to justice."

President Obama is expected to nominate Paul Fishman as the new U.S. Attorney for New Jersey within the next few days, possibly as early as tomorrow, sources say.  His nomination must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Fishman was recommended for the post by U.S. Senators Frank R. Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) and Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) last February.  The post has been vacant since Republican Christopher J. Christie resigned on December 1.  Ralph Marra, Jr. is now the Acting U.S. Attorney.

The 52-year-old Fishman, a Princeton University graduate and editor of the Harvard Law Review, worked in the U.S. Attorney's office as Chief of the Criminal Division and as First Assistant before going to Washington as a senior advisor to Reno and as a Deputy U.S. Attorney General.  Fishman is a partner at Friedman, Kaplan, Seiler and Adelman, where he specializes in white collar criminal matters.  Fishman has represented several public officials prosecuted by Christie, and is currently an attorney for former CWA Local 1034 President Carla Katz, who is seeking to keep her e-mail correspondence with Governor Jon Corzine private.

Paul Fishman is still expected to become New Jersey's next United States Attorney, but his appointment is taking a while.  It's been ten weeks since U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez wrote the President recommending his nomination, but the White House has not really begun the appointment of federal prosecutors for each state. 

Such delays are typical with a new administration.  It took George W. Bush nearly a year before settling on Christopher Christie as his pick.

Last week, when Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra defended his office after the American Civil Liberties Union released documents on the use of cell phone GPS tracking, some Democratic operatives viewed it as a defense of Christie, Marra's predecessor and a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor.  But sources close to the state's Democratic U.S. Senators say there has been no discussion about pushing the White House to speed up the appointment process so that Fishman can take office sooner.  And Marra was simply stating that the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey had always acted legally and with court approval of its actions, and not in defense of any particular person.

Marra's appointment as Acting U.S. Attorney, which was made by Attorney General Michael Mukasey in December, ends on June 29, unless a new U.S. Attorney is nominated and confirmed before then.  The new Attorney General, Eric Holder, will have the option of keeping Marra or making another 120 day interim appointment.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Merkt, a six-term Assemblyman and former Deputy state Attorney General, views the ACLU's disclosure that Chris Christie, as U.S. Attorney, used cell phones to track the whereabouts of certain individuals without warrants, as a huge issue in the campaign for Governor.

Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham), a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor, today harshly criticized rival Christopher Christie for tracking the location of certain individuals through their cell phones without warrants.

"Could it be that U.S. Attorneys who avoided seeking search warrants for secret cell phone tracking knew that a lower standard of proof applies to court approvals, thus allowing prosecutors to ‘game' the judicial system and track even people for whom there is no ‘probable cause'?, Merkt asked in a statement released today. "I, for one, am not comfortable with the notion of law enforcement officials apparently taking ‘shortcuts' to get around constitutional safeguards specified in the Bill of Rights."

Christie told the Star-Ledger yesterday that the use of cell phone tracking technology was with court authorization.   

"That's the standard," Christie said. "There was no policy in place that said to us you have to get a search warrant."

Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, Jr. defended the practices of his office.

"In all instances, the United States Attorney's Office has acted and continues to act lawfully and appropriately by seeking court approval as required under the law as it exists at any given time.  That is the case with this or any other investigative technique that requires court review," Marra said on Thursday.  

But the explanations did not satisfy Merkt, a six-term legislator who served as Deputy state Attorney General under Gov. Thomas Kean.
 
"Put the shoe on the other foot for a moment," said Merkt.  "Were, say, a reporter caught using the GPS chip in Chris Christie's cell phone to secretly track his private luncheons with Republican leaders while he was still U.S. Attorney, Mr. Christie would be outraged at the invasion of his personal privacy - and he would be right."

Merkt said that the ACLU's criticism of Christie using cellular technology to track certain individuals  without a search warrant "is just the latest instance of controversial conduct by the former U.S. Attorney" and said the issue will "return to dog him in the general election" if he wins the GOP primary.  Merkt wants Christie to "provide a more credible explanation of his conduct and clear things up now, rather than leave an inviting target for the Democrats in the fall."

"I have concerns not only about the propriety of Mr. Christie's decision-making as U.S. Attorney, but also about its potential implications for the Republican Party and its viability in the fall campaign," Merkt said.

The full text of Merkt's statement follows:

The American Civil Liberties Union says it has discovered that while serving as U.S. Attorney, Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie approved tracking the precise location of targeted individuals through their cell phone without a warrant. 

In a statement released today, the ACLU says that Justice Department documents they obtained reveal that federal prosecutors in New Jersey and Florida did not obtain a search warrant before using technology to track their whereabouts.

"This is just the newest example of our privacy rights careening over the edge with federal officials drunk at the wheel," said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Deborah Jacobs. "Big Brother is tucked away in our cell phones, and the man behind the curtain is Chris Christie,"

But Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, Jr. defended the practices of his office.

"In all instances, the United States Attorney's Office has acted and continues to act lawfully and appropriately by seeking court approval as required under the law as it exists at any given time.  That is the case with this or any other investigative technique that requires court review," Marra said today.  

Marra says that  cell phone GPS tracking is used in "limited circumstances" and is used in cases involving "known, dangerous criminals or in the apprehension of fugitives."

Keith Reid, the former Chief of Staff to Newark City Council President Mildred Crump, was sentenced to 51 months in a prison.  Last November, after his federal corruption trial had already started, Reid pleaded guilty to accepting $15,500 in bribes from an undercover FBI agent seeking insurance brokerage business for at least two municipalities, Newark and Irvington.

"That is an appropriately long prison sentence that indeed sends a strong message and warning to public officials like Reid who want to leverage their positions for unlawful personal gain," said Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, Jr.

Reid admitted that in July 2007 he used his influence to set up a meeting between Crump and the FBI undercover company and advocated for that company at the meeting.  After the meeting, he met an FBI cooperating witness in a parked car and accepted a cash bribe.  The following month, he set up a meeting with an Irvington official - believed to be Mayor Wayne Smith - and the FBI sting operation.

Tommaso Calautti, an engineer for the West New York Department of Public Works, admitted that he accepted $30,000 from three contractors who received municipal maintenance and repair contracts.  Calautti pleaded guilty to exercising his official influence in favor of the contractors' companies.  Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, Jr. said the investigation is ongoing and while prosecutors know the identities of the contractors, they were not identified in court documents.

The massive number of new appointments being processed by the White House has the vetting process a little backed up.  That has caused a delay in President Barack Obama's formal nomination of Paul Fishman as New Jersey's new U.S. Attorney.  Because he has won endorsements from U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, Fishman has the job.  But Obama won't nominate him until the vetting is done, and he must still compete with other nominees waiting to be confirmed on a busy Senate calendar.  In the meantime, Ralph Marra, Jr. will continue to serve as Acting U.S. Attorney.

Also delayed is the appointment of a new U.S. Marshal to replace Republican James Plousis.  Lautenberg and Menendez have not yet made a recommendation to the White House, and that is where the process begins.  The candidates in that race are the same: Samuel Plumeri, the Director of the Port Authority Police and a former Mercer County Sheriff, and Gov. Jon Corzine's choice; Bergen County Sheriff Leo McGuire, who has the backing of U.S. Rep. Steven Rothman (D-Fair Lawn); and Bergen County Freeholder Director Tomas Padilla, who is also a Hackensack policeman.