There has been, among the people close to political power in the state, among those of us who consider ourselves reformers, a remarkable veneration for the U.S. Attorney for the state of New Jersey. Chris Christie has been described in an array of glowing terms, many earned for his dogged pursuit of corrupt politicians.
Christie has helped take down some high-level creeps: Sharpe James, John Lynch, Wayne Bryant and numerous others. But Christie’s targets have betrayed what maybe a partisan edge — nearly all are Democrats — and he has been tramping around the state in what appears to be campaign mode (the rumors are he is running for governor in 2009).
There maybe a legitimate reason for the partisan divide — Democrats control both houses of the state Legislature and hold nearly all the power in New Jersey. At the same time, it seems pretty fishy — especially given that word leaked out in the weeks before the 2006 election of an investigation into U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, who happened to be running for re-election in a contentious battle with state Sen. Tom Kean Jr.
This context makes this story so interesting. Christie gave a contract to monitor an implant maker as part of a settlement with the company to his former boss at the U.S. Justice Department.
Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft was one of five private attorneys whom Christie hand-picked to monitor the implant makers. Now Ashcroft’s D.C.-based firm is poised to collect more than $52 million in 18 months, among the biggest payouts reported for a federal monitor.
Disclosed in SEC filings, the arrangement calls for Zimmer Holdings of Indiana to pay Ashcroft Group Consulting Services an average monthly fee between $1.5 million and $2.9 million. The figure includes a flat payment of $750,000 to the firm’s “senior leadership group,” individual legal and consulting services billed at up to $895 an hour, and as much as $250,000 a month for expenses including private airfare, lodging and meals.
Christie denies any wrong doing, but as Tom Moran, who has written glowingly about Christie in the past, points out, “This one has an odor to it.”
The central problem is that Christie has given himself oversized powers to call the shots in this cleanup. He can do that because the accused firm, Zimmer Holdings of Indiana, signed what’s known as a deferred prosecution agreement.
In plain terms, it means that the company has surrendered in the face of overwhelming criminal evidence and has agreed to let an outside monitor run the show.
Prosecutors across the country are using this weapon more and more. But often the monitors in other jurisdictions are selected by a judge or chosen through some collaborative process.
Christie made this choice himself. Yes, Zimmer Holdings could have objected, as it can object to the fees. But would you do that if you were the firm that just surrendered? Would you risk angering a monitor who is soon to become your lord and master?
And that is the problem.
Christie should be able to see the design flaw in this. And it’s not limited to the Ashcroft case — he gave another monitoring job to Dave Samson, the former attorney general and a major political fund-raiser.
Yes, guys like Ashcroft and Samson would probably raise money for Christie anyway. But this is New Jersey, and we have earned the right to suspect that a truckload of cash might have an effect.
Even for someone with the squeaky-clean reputation, like Chris Christie.
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Hank Kalet 