Governor Chris Christie faces a criminal investigation
over allegations that he obstructed justice to help some of his political
allies, and fired a state prosecutor for complaining about the situation. The
new investigation, coupled with the now famous bridge closure incident, may
jeopardize the political future of the potential 2016 presidential candidate.
Bennett Barlyn, a former prosecutor with the Hunterdon
County office, filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against the Christie
administration and local law-enforcement officials, leveling a variety of
corruption charges shortly after his termination in August, 2010. Now, the
International Business Times reports that the Justice Department is picking up
those charges in a criminal investigation.
According to Barlyn, the Chris Christie administration
obstructed justice for his friends like this.
First, Barlyn’s Hunterdon County prosecutor’s office
began investigating then-Sheriff Deborah Trout in 2008. A grand jury for the
case indicted Trout, her Undersheriff Michael Russo, and local investigator
John Falat, Jr., on 43 counts. Barlyn claims Trout was using the office as her
own private kingdom, hiring her friends regardless of past experience and
without proper background checks.
At that point, Chris Christie’s administration stepped
in.
Christie’s then-Attorney General, Paula Dow, overturned
all 43 of the grand jury’s indictments, despite what many of the jurists claim
was “strong evidence.”
When Barlyn started to raise objections, he was fired.
He told ABC News about some of the signs of corruption
before his dismissal, saying that all the information obtained from the
two-year investigation was “suddenly shipped back to [the state capital]
Trenton… physically taken out of our office and taken to the attorney general’s
office.”
A situation the former prosecutor for 18-years described
as “highly unusual.”
He added, “the head of our special investigations unit
who was heading the investigation was very abruptly taken off the case two
weeks before the dismissal.”
He also insists that there is photographic evidence
linking Chris Christie to those people who were under investigation.
Chris Christie insists that he has never recalled meeting
or talking with a “single one of these oddball characters,” according to a
spokesman for the governor.
A claim that might be both true and irrelevant.
The initial investigation of Trout reportedly involved an
embarrassing connection to Robert Hariri, an executive at the pharmaceutical
giant Celgene. Hariri is a man Christie knows quite well. He was a major
campaign donor to Chris Christie, and he was a key member of the
administration’s transition team.
Likewise, Celgene employs Christie’s former chief of
staff, Richard Bagger.
The investigation on Trout turned up evidence that Hariri
obtained a fake police clearance, after flying Undersheriff Russo on his
private jet to an event in Washington.
According to the Guardian, when Barlyn first filed the
lawsuit, Christie’s spokesman, Michael Drewniak, said, “this is conspiracy
theory stuff from someone who is obviously casting a wide net with hopes of
coming up with a big fish or something. It’s nonsense.”
Now, the administration is silent, giving no comment to
the International Business Times, which first broke the story.
The “nonsense,” coupled with the now famous bridge
closure scandal, threatens the political future of Chris Christie, although
formal charges have not yet been leveled
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