New Jersey Attorney General's Office Botched Major Corruption Case
U.S. attorney rips AG's office over corruption probe
U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie unleashed a blistering attack on the New Jersey Attorney General's Office yesterday, accusing state investigators of botching a five-year corruption probe into South Jersey political boss George Norcross III so thoroughly that it could not be salvaged.
The investigation into Norcross, a prominent businessman who has helped to finance, elect and appoint dozens of public officials, proved to be an albatross for both offices.
Christie found that the probe was bungled largely from the start, citing not just incompetence, but evidence that led to "a number of damaging inferences, including the protection of political figures."
In early 2001, state prosecutors authorized Gural to tape all his conversations, but ordered him not to wear the wire during a fundraiser for Camden County Democrats at the Tavistock Country Club in Haddonfield -- an occasion that drew all the subjects of the investigation to the same location, according to Christie's letter.
And he chided Harvey's administration for striking plea bargains with two JCA officials, Mark Neisser and Henry Chudzinski, that allowed them to plead guilty to tax charges and avoid prison without providing any valuable cooperation in the case.
Christie wrote that the FBI and federal prosecutors asked three times to join the probe between 2000 and 2005, but were rebuffed each time. They finally were handed the case last March, after Rosenberg and Gural took their claims public in a lawsuit.
Christie wrote that such a move put prosecutors "in the uncomfortable position" of reviewing a case they had long been denied, then left them "saddled with the results of a clearly compromised investigation."
Gural and Rosenberg in a statement said: "In retrospect, our biggest mistake was to entrust a political corruption case of this magnitude to the New Jersey Attorney General's Office."
New Jersey Government
U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie unleashed a blistering attack on the New Jersey Attorney General's Office yesterday, accusing state investigators of botching a five-year corruption probe into South Jersey political boss George Norcross III so thoroughly that it could not be salvaged.
The investigation into Norcross, a prominent businessman who has helped to finance, elect and appoint dozens of public officials, proved to be an albatross for both offices.
Christie found that the probe was bungled largely from the start, citing not just incompetence, but evidence that led to "a number of damaging inferences, including the protection of political figures."
In early 2001, state prosecutors authorized Gural to tape all his conversations, but ordered him not to wear the wire during a fundraiser for Camden County Democrats at the Tavistock Country Club in Haddonfield -- an occasion that drew all the subjects of the investigation to the same location, according to Christie's letter.
And he chided Harvey's administration for striking plea bargains with two JCA officials, Mark Neisser and Henry Chudzinski, that allowed them to plead guilty to tax charges and avoid prison without providing any valuable cooperation in the case.
Christie wrote that the FBI and federal prosecutors asked three times to join the probe between 2000 and 2005, but were rebuffed each time. They finally were handed the case last March, after Rosenberg and Gural took their claims public in a lawsuit.
Christie wrote that such a move put prosecutors "in the uncomfortable position" of reviewing a case they had long been denied, then left them "saddled with the results of a clearly compromised investigation."
Gural and Rosenberg in a statement said: "In retrospect, our biggest mistake was to entrust a political corruption case of this magnitude to the New Jersey Attorney General's Office."
New Jersey Government
