You have to love the gall of U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, as he ponders whether Hudson County officials learned anything from the 46 arrests in 2009 and some subsequent convictions as a result of the federal investigation that used Solomon Dwek as bait.
Perhaps the biggest lesson is that the U.S. Attorney’s office will stop at almost nothing when it comes to using the office to help a former U.S. attorney get elected governor.
Several defendants in the case said charges against them would have disappeared entirely had they agreed to wear a wire that would have helped entrap other public officials.
As in the old maximum, “military intelligence is an oxymoron,” the same might be said for the Justice Department, where justice depends almost entirely on which political party you belong to, and what your ultimate aim is.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey has been plagued by this problem for over a decade, especially under the last two U.S. attorneys, who have become known in some circles as “Fatman and Robin.”
In Hudson County, justice has been hard to come by under this crime fighting duo, where sullying the name of a Department of Community Affairs commissioner in an election year is considered perfectly acceptable – even to the point of carrying out empty boxes out of his house to suggest an investigation was underway when it was pure show.
In some cases, the U.S. attorney has agreed to milder sentences for a woman promoting prostitution and maintaining female slaves in order to get a small-town mayor who allegedly accepted a bribe.
In one corruption case, former Freeholder William Braker was denied the use of surveillance tapes in his own defense because the tape allegedly indicated that one of the U.S. Attorney’s top informants had given bribes – an informant who still routinely does business in Hudson County unfettered by federal probes.
Some who cooperated with the federal dismantling of the Democratic fund raising machine in New Jersey were often operating their own scams or involved in allegedly illegal activities even while under the supervision of the U.S. attorney’s office.
I guess the best lesson learned from the batch of arrests made in 2009 is that if you go to bed with dogs you wake up with fleas.
The question is: What can we expect when Christie runs for reelection in 2013, since he will likely be using it as a stepping stone for a run for the White House in 2016?
Coming up with one for Zimmer
This, of course, leads to the question: what is going on in the famous e-mail case in Hoboken?
Since the FBI and Justice Department had been rooting around in the Hoboken City Hall for so long, you have to believe they came up with something.
Wrongful access to e-mails and dissemination of information contained in those e-mails equates to tampering with the U.S. mail or wire fraud.
The question is, who did what and why, and who will be charged with the FBI is finished?
Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s administration says that they are the ones who called in the FBI. Rumor has it that someone was leaking the administration’s e-mails to Zimmer’s political foes.
Supporters of Zimmer are hoping for a repeat of the Peter Cammarano story – that the arrest of some big fish will turn around their political fortunes.
Local politics lately has been move and counter-move, as the Zimmer administration pulls out new tricks that her opponents counter. Recently, Zimmer’s City Council allies voted to move municipal elections from May to November. The move would have a side-effect of giving Zimmer and her council members an extra six months in office. Also, the new 2013 election cycle would coincide with that of Zimmer ally Gov. Christopher Christie. Some believe Zimmer needs Christie’s coat tails to help her win a city-wide election that year.
But Zimmer’s opponents have filed petitions to move this question to November’s ballot, so residents can decide rather than the council. If voters defeat the change, then the municipal elections will remain in May of 2013.
Shooting the messenger
Bayonne Mayor Mark Smith clearly hasn’t taken a walk down Broadway recently, except maybe for some ribbon cuttings.
People have been talking for more than two months about whether or not he intends to step down as mayor to take some other political position.
This is not just the usual political crowd, but store keepers and others, who gather outside the shops along Broadway, many eyeing the empty stores.
Most of this speculation comes as a result of the deal to sell a portion of the former Military Ocean Terminal to the Port Authority. Many question why the attorney the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority hired for $350,000 negotiated a worse deal with the Port Authority than the one former Mayor Joseph Doria used to help balance the budget – so that he could leave for a post with the state – and that the city sued to get out of.
While Smith blamed The Bayonne Community News for creating the rumor, the truth is the talk has been ongoing for a while, even to the point where several mayoral hopefuls began investigating possible campaigns for the special election that would result from a Smith resignation.
Most assumed that Smith would follow Doria’s lead and jump ship before the city’s budget woes became too much to manage.
The theory was that Smith was going to take a post on the Port Authority and take with him in some capacity his best friend, Chris Patella, current chairman of the BLRA, and that to sweeten the offer, the city would sell yet more of the MOTBY to the Port Authority.
Sources inside the Port Authority said there is no place for Smith or Patella. Sources inside the Smith administration say that there is no future deal with the PA planned.
This has only led to additional rumors about Smith’s leaving, with ordinary people talking about it, not just the usual political suspects.
But Smith people, quoting Bob Dylan, simply say, “He ain’t going nowhere.”