A criminal complaint filed by Special FBI agent Robert J. Cooke against now-Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III and former Councilman Michael Schaffer, who sits on the county’s sewerage authority board, says that Schaffer allegedly accepted payments of $5,000 cash at a Hoboken diner to use for Mayor Peter Cammarano’s campaign, and that the new mayor allegedly knew about them.
Cammarano was elected mayor in a runoff election in June.
The ten-page complaint quotes conversations at a diner and on the phone between Schaffer and a “cooperating witness” who is not identified. Apparently, Schaffer and the unnamed cooperating FBI witness, representing himself as a prospective developer in Hoboken, met at the diner with Cammarano and others on April 2009. A Jersey City official and an anonymous consultant joined them.
Cammarano told the cooperating witness, according to the document, that “I run the election law department at the, at the biggest election law firm in the state of New Jersey.” He also said, “[T]o the extent there’s a pro-development person in this race, that’s me.”
The witness asked Cammarano about the process and whether Cammarano could expedite zoning decisions on his behalf, or whether he’d have to wait “six months, eight months or a year?” Cammarano allegedly replied that he could sponsor it to put it on the council agenda.
According to the document, Cammarano said, “I promise you…you’re gonna be treated like a friend.”
The group agreed that the witness would “do my business with Mike [Schaffer.]”
The witness also said, “I’m going to give [Schaffer], uh, five thousand to start, and then after the election I’ll do another five thousand” to which Cammarano allegedly responded “Okay. Beautiful,” according to the FBI document.
In subsequent conversations between the witness and Schaffer, Schaffer told the witness that Cammarano appreciated the first donation after it was given, according to the FBI document. Schaffer reportedly said “Oh, loved it. Loved it. Loved him.”
The FBI says they intercepted a call on May 6 from the consultant to Schaffer, with the consultant telling Schaffer that the witness would like to “invest some more money in, uh, Peter.”
Around May 19, the report says, Cammarano and Schaffer again met with the Jersey City official, the consultant, and the witness at a Hoboken diner to discuss contributions in advance of the June runoff election against Dawn Zimmer.
According to the FBI report, Cammarano said, ‘The Italians, the Hispanics, the seniors are locked down. Nothing can change that now…I could be, uh, indicted, and I’m still gonna win 85 to 95 percent of those populations.”
Stay tuned to this site, www.hudsonreporter.com, for more developments, and read more in this weekend’s edition of the Hoboken Reporter. Call 201-798-7800 for more details.
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