Chris Christie has denied allegations that he used his “connections” to force a “lenient plea deal” in a federal tax fraud case saying “he could not have exerted influence over the case because he did not learn of it until Tuesday, when a reporter informed him about the lawsuit.”
Christie’s response was reported in today’s Star-Ledger.
There is no reason to doubt his comments — the U.S. Atorney’s office is a big place. But there is something in his comments that raises other questions. Here is what he said, according to the Ledger:
Christie said he did not actually sign the charging document outlining the crime, which bears his signature, saying that was common practice in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“There were probably 12 to 14 people at any one time who had the authority to sign my name to documents,” Christie said before a campaign event in Ewing. “My name’s on every piece of paper that goes out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. I’m responsible for everything that goes on there, but what the allegation is, is that somehow I used influence to get some better deal, which I didn’t even know about the case, so my influence wasn’t used for anything because I didn’t even know about the case.”
So he knew and was involved in all of the corruption convictions won by his office, but not this? There were a dozen people who could sign off on charges, plea deals and the like, using his name, but he didn’t necessarily have to even hear about this stuff? What else didn’t he know about? This is accountability?
Will we get answers to these questions? Not likely. Why do I say this? Because the Republican candidate “blamed Corzine, who trails Christie in public opinion polls and whose campaign has criticized Christie for other dealings with Stern and Inglesino, who contributed to Christie’s campaign.”
“I understand the desperation of the Corzine campaign. I understand they’re desperate and they’re flailing away, but that doesn’t make it true, and the fact of the matter is I didn’t know anything about this case any of the time I was at the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Christie said.
Hank Kalet 