Update: Lonegan alleges A.G. probe is retaliatory

Former Bogota mayor and conservative activist Steve Lonegan said today that the Attorney General’s office is investigating him, and that he thinks it reeks of political retribution.

Lonegan is calling for the legislature to appoint an independent prosecutor to look into the matter and wants the U.S. Attorney to conduct a civil rights investigation on his behalf. 

Lonegan, who has spent the last week in the media spotlight after he was arrested for trespassing while protesting against the governor’s asset monetization plan outside of his Cape May County Town Hall meeting at a school in Middle Township, said that arrest was merely “the tip of the iceberg” in a campaign of intimidation on the part of the Corzine administration and Attorney General Anne Milgram.   

According to Lonegan, the investigation started at the peak of his own campaign against two ballot measures that went down in defeat in November’s elections.

At a press conference today, Lonegan stood with defense lawyer Miles Feinstein and passed around a subpoena for financial and other records from Botoga Borough Hall --  where Lonegan just finished up his third and final term as mayor – that included employment records from the town’s Department of Public Works.

Although the subpoena did not name Lonegan, Feinstein said that six unnamed Bogota employees and Lonegan associates were interviewed by staff of the Attorney General’s office about issues directly involving Lonegan – both about his work as Mayor of Bogota and his personal life -- and that some of them were brought to testify in front of a grand jury. 

Lonegan said that he knows of at least two other subpoenas, although nobody from the Attorney General’s office has contacted him about any investigation, and that he caught wind of it through people he knows who were interviewed.

Milgram spokesman David Wald would not confirm or deny an investigation aimed at Lonegan. 

"We don't comment on investigations, and the attorney general has made clear that politics plays absolutely no role in her office and it's something she does not tolerate," he said. 

Corzine spokesman Jim Gardner said that he could not speak for the Attorney General’s office, but repeated the Corzine administration’s stance that neither the Governor nor any staffers had anything to do with Lonegan’s arrest last weekend.

“The governor has said repeatedly and quite emphatically on numerous occasions, any and all comments regarding the state finances are welcome, regardless of point of view,” said Gardner, who later added: “The Attorney General’s office works independently and apolitically, and without outside interference.”

The usually outspoken Lonegan let Feinstein do most of the talking. 

“The irony from my experience is defense attorneys like this don’t come to you and relate the investigation,” said Feinstein.  “Everything here is consistent with an innocent man.”

Feinstein, who Lonegan retained last month after he said he realized the gravity of the investigation, characterized it as a fishing expedition “based on the administration’s policies of him speaking out against this over the years.”

“There were grand jury subpoenas issued, persons spoken to, documents produced, personal pictures of, for example, his house.. .. Harassment of potential witnesses, badmouthing against Steve Lonegan untruthful things, going into his personal life and activities,” said Feinstein. 

Lonegan called the investigation “opposition research at taxpayer’s expense,” and challenged Milgram to make public any allegations against him.  He also said that he plans to request a one-on-one sit down with Milgram.

“"I'm not afraid of Jon Corzine. I'm not afraid of the Attorney General’s office. They can come up with all kinds of phony claims if they want and intend to do so,” said Lonegan. “I challenge them to come out of the shadows and tell us what they're all about.”

Lonegan is known for his aggressive media strategy, but he denied that today’s press conference was intended to drum up publicity for him or his anti-tax organization, Americans for Prosperity.

“They put me and my personal life under a microscope.  I didn’t ask for any of this,” said Lonegan. “If Anne Milgram has something she thinks I’ve done wrong, tell me what it is.  Surprise me right here in public,” he said. 

With regard to his trespassing arrest, Lonegan said that, if the charges are dropped a public apology will not be enough, but he wants to attend his January 30th hearing before he decides what to do next.  A civil suit, he said, is within the realm of possibility.