Wayne Bryant

Disgraced former state Sen. Wayne Bryant will not be able to use campaign funds to pay for his legal offense, according to report from the Associated Press.

Bryant was convicted last month of every count of bribery and pension fraud brought against him by federal authorities.

Earlier this year, before the verdict, Bryant’s lawyers asked the Election Law Enforcement Commission whether he could use $640,000 in left over campaign funds to pay his lawyer bills. When the advisory commission said that it was not permissible, Bryant’s attorneys tried again with an appeals court.

To view a larger version of this cartoon, click here.

Former State Senator Wayne Bryant got a smack on the back of the head from a jury of his peers today when they found him guilty of all eleven charges against him. On the third day of deliberations the jury delivered their verdict with a very sound, “Hey…..what the heck did you think you were doing?” Bryant will be back in court in March to hear what his sentence will be; it would seem that he will have four months to disburse his accumulated ill gotten gains or what is left of them after his defense attorney takes his cut.

There are those who have been frustrated of late because as fans of Bryant, they were not able to sing his praises in court. They wanted to espouse the good things that he has done, as if those deeds should carry weight in the jury’s decision-making process when trying to decide beyond a shadow of a doubt if he committed any criminal acts. Perhaps Bryant’s most egregious crime was his betrayal of the voters' trust in a district that encompasses what can only be considered New Jersey’s very own “war zone” and home to some of the poorest in the USA. The city of Camden, the county seat of Camden County -- Bryant’s stomping grounds -- has an unemployment rate of 16.3 percent, compared to the national average of 6.9 percent, according to Federal figures on the employment website simplyhired.com.

Getty Images Photo

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie says that Wayne Bryant's conviction will wake up the state pension board

A story by the Gloucester County Times' Trish Graber must have been a real sphincter squeezing moment for more than a few politically active lawyers: "The conviction of former Sen. Wayne Bryant rang the alarm on public-sector attorneys who sent subordinates to perform their work, a practice the defense argued was common throughout New Jersey." Especially since outgoing U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie says that the Bryant trial "has woken up the pension board.... I think the pension board is going to be much more active in looking at these pension applications .. If you did it in a serial way like Wayne Bryant did, you should go to the pension board now and make good."

Graber suggests that among the first pension cases to be reviewed will be those of former State Sen. Raymond Zane and Gloucester County Democratic Chairman Michael Angelini, who "were key to the defense's argument that the practice of Bryant sending associates to perform his work at the Gloucester County Board of Social Services, and taking the pension credits, was common."   Zane, who served in the Senate from 1973 until his defeat in 2001, collects a pension based on nine part-time public jobs.

12TH District legislators Senator Jennifer Beck, Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon and Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande today urged the legislature to pass A-1444 and S-686, which would change current law by forcing any public official convicted of corruption to forfeit all their public pensions and applying to all public officials, regardless of when their crimes took place.

A jury convicted former State Sen. Wayne Bryant today on federal corruption charges

Former state Sen. Wayne Bryant has been found guilty on every count of bribery and fraud that he was charged with.

The jury concluded that Bryant, a Democrat who used to represent Camden and Gloucester Counties, was given a low-show job at the University and Medicine and Dentistry in exchange for his political influence in obtaining grants for the school. That job, in turn, significantly boosted his pension.

Today’s verdict comes one day after U.S. Attorney Chris Christie announced that he planned to resign at the beginning of next month – possibly to launch a gubernatorial bid. The conviction puts another high profile feather in his corruption crusader cap.

More from the Courier-Post, Bergen Record and Star-Ledger.

New Jersey Senate Democratic Photo

A jury is deliberating the fate of former State Sen. Wayne Bryant after his trial on federal corruption charges

Attorneys in the federal corruption trial of former State Sen. Wayne Bryant finished their closing arguments on Friday, and jurors will return today to continue their deliberation.  Republican sources say that this might be U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie's final case -- one option the federal prosecutor is reportedly considering is to announce his resignation shortly after the Bryant verdict and leave office about two weeks later.  Christie is considered a likely candidate for the 2009 Republican nomination for Governor.

If Christie leaves earlier than January 20, 2009 -- when U.S. Attorney's traditionally offer their resignations to incoming administrations -- the Bush Justice Department will name someone to run the office on an acting basis.  The Obama-run Justice Department would have the option of naming their own Acting U.S. Attorney until a permanent appointment is made, although that could take about four months after Christie's temporary successor takes the reigns.

Senate President Richard Codey says he will not invoke executive privilege in the investigation of the Property Tax Assistance and Community Development Grants program approved during his fourteen months as Governor, and said he will support the release of all documents.

"Although legally we have the right to invoke executive privilege, to the contrary we want this information to be released.  People have a right to know how their money is being spent.  I think the public will see, as they scrutinize these lists, that this money helped support many good causes,” Codey said. “The release of these documents will help clarify many questions surrounding the grant program.

If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't.
-- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

Democrats should stop leaking information about a few grants and reveal all grants and which Democrats decided where the money would go. The Treasurer has all these facts. The Governor should order him to put it on the Governor's Web site immediately.