Jackson: Chertoff calls complaints with Marra a 'stretch'

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?

A: I'm not going to comment on something somebody said that I didn't see or hear.  Generally there are a set of rules, you're not supposed to comment, give a personal opinion about someone's guilt or innocence, you're not supposed to talk about evidence that hasn't actually been made public in court.  So those are pretty clear rules.  I think every U.S. attorney always has a little rhetorical flourish. I don't ever remember seeing a U.S. attorney, including myself, get out and say we've arrested people for horrendous acts of terrorism, we don't want to comment about whether we think it's good or bad. That's obviously a little foolish. So I think the key's generally to avoid saying anything that would prejudice the defendant in the case.

Q: Does the fact Mr. Marra's former supervisor is a candidate for governor running on the a reform platform--

A: [Interrupting]I think it's a stretch to try to fit this is into a political discussion. The rules are - Obviously a US attorney won't come out and say I support a political candidate, but you know there's always an election in this country, and if the rule is you can't say anything that might be a topic of public interest then you wouldn't be able to have a press conference.  So I think generally the rule is not to comment on guilt or innocence, not to talk about evidence that's not in the case. But I think general comments about the significance of the case, whether it's a corruption case or a bank fraud case or a securities fraud case, a mortgage fraud case, that's kind of common frankly.

Click here to read Jackson's post.