Chris Christie in The Jersey Sting, by Sherman & Margolin
On Crime:
2002: Aggressive political campaign for US Attorney position
A graduate of the University of Delaware and Seton Hall Law School, Christie--who doesn't do things halfway--waged an aggressive campaign for the top federal law enforcement job in the state. The US Attorney is a political appointee of the president, and
Christie received widespread backing from prominent NJ Republican leaders. Opponents to the nomination, though, argued that Christie was, at best, ill prepared to be
US Attorney in an office with a reputation for its independence and known for high-profile cases ranging from espionage and political corruption to white-collar crime and health-care fraud. The executive committee of the Federal Bar Association of
NJ passed a unanimous resolution urging the president to nominate a candidate with law enforcement experience.Christie ultimately won Senate confirmation and was sworn in as the state's top federal law enforcement official in January 2002.
Source: The Jersey Sting, by Sherman & Margolin, p. 81-82
Apr 10, 2012
On Crime:
Prosecuted international scheme for human organ sales
There was someone in the Orthodox community in Brooklyn brokering human kidney transplants for about $150,000 a pop. As the story went, the broker would find donors in Israel and for the right price hook them up with people who needed transplants for
operations here in the US."You're kidding me," Christie said. They were not. Christie said almost jokingly, "That's definitely against the law, right?" His chief counsel nodded.
On Capitol Hill, the National Organ Transplant Act became law in 1984,
spelling out the prohibition, though leaving the issue somewhat vague: "It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive or otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use in transplantation." No one had ever been
prosecuted under the statute. If the prosecutor made a case, it was going to be a first.
Christie did not authorize it right away. It took several months to get the US Attorney's office to sign off on the approach.
Source: The Jersey Sting, by Sherman & Margolin, p.136-137
Apr 10, 2012
On Crime:
OpEd: Loved decrying officials trading on elected office
The race for governor was in its final, frenzied months and Jon Corzine and Chris Christie were at the center, slugging it out now like street brawlers.Corzine's very weakness had lured Christie into the race and the former prosecutor loved calling
the incumbent timid. It drove Corzine bananas. In 7 tears running the US Attorney's office, Christie fully inhabited--and basked in--the role of chief federal lawman in NJ. You could see it on his face. In his strut. He loved the news conferences on
courthouse steps to decry another public official trading on elected office. He eagerly traversed the state for speaking engagements in all corners, no matter how long the drive. And he was the rage of the press who provided clippings that wouldn't stop.
Lengthy TV interviews with him trumpeting his efforts to clean up corruption and gangs. Announcement after announcement, laying out stings that nailed politicians, informants who fingered politicians, greed that destroyed politicians.
Source: The Jersey Sting, by Sherman & Margolin, p.269
Apr 10, 2012
On Government Reform:
Corruption is key because people need faith in government
[In 2002], the new US Attorney began making public corruption a top priority of his office. Christie often explained corruption was key because people need to have faith in their government and its institutions. But it also made for huge headlines and
Christie simply loved huge headlines. Within days of Christie becoming the new US Attorney, the FBI arrested Paterson mayor Marty Barnes, who was charged with handing out millions of dollars in public contracts in return for vacation trips, a new
swimming pool and waterfall for his home, expensive suits, and other luxury items. It wasn't Christie's case, developed long before he arrived, but it was the 1st public corruption indictment to come before Christie, and he spoke out strongly."The
conduct here is the most reprehensible type of public conduct that you can find anywhere in this country," he declared. "It is personal and financial gratification at the expense of the public, using your public office to do that. And it's disgraceful."
Source: The Jersey Sting, by Sherman & Margolin, p. 83
Apr 10, 2012
On Government Reform:
Legacy as U.S. Attorney: dismantled N.J. Democratic Party
Behind closed doors, they say Chris Christie's goal and legacy as a US Attorney was the systematic dismantling of some of the state's leading political organizations, in Bergen, Hudson, and Middlesex.
They argued that Christie came to office while the Democratic Party was riding high and heading toward its zenith in NJ. They say he was determined to bust it down.
They openly criticize him for using a strike force of federal agents and the vast resources of the Justice Department to go after politicians to benefit himself and his party instead of fighting gangs and fraud and the things that
are always said to "really matter to people."Christie laughs at that: "That's the kind of thing that's said by people who were never in that office."
Source: The Jersey Sting, by Sherman & Margolin, p.324
Apr 10, 2012
On Principles & Values:
His idol: Bruce Springsteen; favorite song: Thunder Road
In Christie's 7th-floor office was a bottle of Mr. Clean household cleanser, emblazoned with a photo of the US Attorney's face on the label. The office itself was a shrine to Christie the fanatic, decorated with all sorts of memorabilia from his beloved
NY Mets and a signed Fender guitar from his idol, NJ rocker Bruce Springsteen.
A Springsteen freak, Christie was known to shut the door before a news conference and turn up the volume on classics from the E Street Band, getting himself juiced before meeting the press to talk about a major arrest.
More often than not, it was the song "Thunder Road," and Christie, who once flew to London, England, just to catch a live Springsteen performance, had a tendency to sing aloud.
Source: The Jersey Sting, by Sherman & Margolin, p. 84
Apr 10, 2012
On Principles & Values:
OpEd: U.S. Attorney office often leads to statewide posts
In a state where law, politics, crime, and headlines create a powerful alchemy, there is no appointed post more powerful or sought after than the US Attorney. On top of everything else the position has going for it,
US Attorney is one of only a tiny handful of jobs with statewide authority. NJ, because of its compact geography and its past as a small population bedroom for NY and Philadelphia, has only one Justice Department district.
So the US Attorney is the undisputed top federal law enforcement official in the state. It is a perch from which many have graduated to lucrative legal practices and judgeships, including a spot on the US Supreme Court
(Justice Samuel Alito is a former NJ US Attorney). And it's the place that revived Chris Christie's dead political career.
Source: The Jersey Sting, by Sherman & Margolin, p.255
Apr 10, 2012
On Principles & Values:
2006: Questioned for subpoenas timing to affect elections
The US Attorney's office--under the control of Chris Christie--took on a central role in Menendez's life. Two months before the 2006 election, federal prosecutors very publicly subpoenaed records connected to a rental deal between
Menendez and a community-service agency that won federal grants.
The controversial subpoena would multiply into a small series and it became a critical element of the election. Inside the US Attorney's office, Christie authorized the first subpoena in 2006, ignoring the potential effect it could have on the
Kean-Menendez balloting.It was a move that infuriated Democrats, who accused Christie of issuing the subpoena specifically to affect the election.
Source: The Jersey Sting, by Sherman & Margolin, p.260-261
Apr 10, 2012
Page last updated: Jul 12, 2015