Christie Taking Heat Over Undisclosed Loan To Former Employee In U.S. Attorney's Office
Chris Christie, the former U.S. Attorney and current Republican nominee for Governor of New Jersey, is now getting a new headache over a story that was broken last night by New Jersey Public Television -- that in 2007, Christie made a $46,000 personal loan to an assistant of his in the U.S. Attorney's office, which is still being paid off in regular installments:
Christie said he did not view this as an improper financial relationship: "I just believe that if you have friends who are in need, that you help them, whether they work with you or whether they're friends of yours from outside the work realm. We were happy to be able to help, and they've been great about repaying the loan."
Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine's campaign has pounced on the report, saying that a candidate for governor should not have an ongoing financial relationship with someone who is still working in the U.S. Attorney's office. "This raises more significant questions and legal issues for the Christie campaign," said Corzine spokesman Sean Darcy. "Are they still in contact? Have they been discussing this campaign? What impact has their ongoing financial relationship had on the gubernatorial campaign?"
The New York Times, meanwhile, points out another problem: Christie failed to report the loan on disclosure forms that are required at both the state and federal level: "Last year, in fact, Mr. Christie's office obtained an indictment against Dennis Oury, a Democratic lawyer in Bergen County, accusing him, in part, of filing false financial disclosure statements that omitted his stake in a company that was receiving public money. He awaits trial this fall."
The Times also notes that in the 2005, another gubernatorial candidate got in some trouble over an undisclosed loan that he'd made, and he filed an amended disclosure as a result: Jon Corzine.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
yes, yes, yes.
August 18, 2009 12:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
So suddenly this guy is a bank? His explanation makes no sense. Friends lend five bucks to pay for lunch, not $46,000. And if it's a loan to "friends", why is he making money off it? Something is peculiar.
August 18, 2009 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
The post didn't say he was making money off of it, only that it was being paid back in regular installments.
Still, lending $46,000 to a subordinate strikes me as highly irregular.
August 18, 2009 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK, never mind; I saw the article. It looks like he was charging about 5% interest, which is on the low side if this was an unsecured loan, but was roughly what you would have gotten on a 10-year Treasury note at the time. So yeah, he was making some money on it, though it was probably a better deal for the employee than she'd have gotten from a bank.
What's very suspicious is that he didn't report it. Why would you not report something like that unless there was some aspect of the deal that you didn't want anyone else to know about? And just what was that something he was trying to keep others from finding out?
August 18, 2009 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Make that 5.5% on the money for a 10-year fixed-rate amortized loan.
August 18, 2009 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Show of hands, how many of you out there could borrow $46,000 from your boss? I agree, Eric; there's something very off about this. I'm also wondering if there have been any new polls released since all of this information started coming out. I'd be very surprised if Christie's lead didn't dissipate or disappear all together.
August 18, 2009 3:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't that the truth? That's a lot of moolah to loan to an employee. Heck, it's a lot of money to loan to a relative.
August 18, 2009 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
In addition to the smoking guns simmering all around him, doesn't this guy look guilty, like the chubby offspring of Denny Hastert and Phyllis Schlafley?
August 18, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
The thought of that pairing made me shudder ever so slightly.
August 18, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who's the friend?
August 18, 2009 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The document says Christie, while serving as New Jersey's federal lawman, lent Michele Brown $46,000, to be repaid with monthly installments of $499.22 through October 2017. Brown is the first assistant U.S. attorney and had been promoted to two top posts by Christie while he ran the prosecutor's office."
Had a feeling it was going to be a woman. Bet his wife didn't know about it!
August 18, 2009 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ms Brown ?.
Shoe...meet the other shoe...
August 18, 2009 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who do you think is comin’ to town
You’ll never guess who
Lovable, hugable Michele Brown
Miss Brown to you
(From a bastardization of a Billie Holiday song)
August 18, 2009 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
He also failed to pay income taxes on the loan. This is going to be big.
August 18, 2009 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
dead man walking
August 18, 2009 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know. Corzine took a lot of flak for giving a bunch of cash to his ex-girlfriend, who also happened to be president of the largest state-worker union in the state. I think when NJ voters weigh this financial indiscretion against Corzine's, they'll still side with Christie. Unless, of course, it turns out there's a lot more to this.
August 18, 2009 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's always a lot more to this. Giving your girlfriend money is one thing. Giving it to an attractive woman that you have fast-track promoted in your department and you are married,...eh, not so much!
August 18, 2009 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. And it does appear there may well be more to this:
http://www.bluejersey.com/diary/12254/
"At the time the loan was granted Brown was fourth in command at the office of the United States Attorney for New Jersey. She is now First Assistant US Attorney. To questions from NJN about the nature of the loan, Christie replied they were friends and he helped her out during a financial pinch.
"But given the mileage Christie is positioning himself to get with an anti-corruption plan he proposes as the Republican candidate for Governor, the timing - coming conveniently right after the massive political corruption sweep in July. That's magical timing, the kind of advantageous happenstance that's a lot easier if you have a very close relationship with somebody still in a key position in your old office."
August 18, 2009 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hold on here.
If a friend of mine doesn't have money for dinner, hey, here's $20.
If a good friend of mine was in trouble and needed some money, maybe I could do a hundred bucks or so.
If a really good friend was in dire straits, hey, maybe I could loan a grand.
But $46,000? How many people have a liquid $46,000 handy to loan out? I know a lot of wealthy people that generally wouldn't keep that in some sort of totally liquid account - it'd be in some fund somewhere. And while I have some very, very, very good friends, I can't imagine lending that much money.
The fact that the recipient is female and that the loan went undisclosed is going to lead to the inevitable conclusion that there was more to it than meets the eye...
August 18, 2009 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
$46000 isn't a loan, it is a ransom.
Well, OK, maybe there is a good reason (maybe someone is going thru a divorce, and needed money to hold onto a house,,), but even then, any financial relationship within the work force is prohibited, period. Especially one with a direct report.
Not reporting it makes it look worse. There is more to this to come out.
August 18, 2009 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
As soon as we start hearing from the restaurant waiters and hotel doormen who saw the two of them together, Christie will withdraw from the race. I'll give it about 3 weeks!
August 18, 2009 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK, now what can we dig up on Bob McDonnell in Virginia? I really, really, really don't want that guy as my next governor.
August 18, 2009 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Two words: Carla Katz.
This is just not going to stick to Christie, who is a clean guy if a relatively run of the mill suburban Republican.
And the sheer scale of the payoffs to Carla Katz were apparently so large -- divorced from a teacher and living on 90K, she suddenly had two luxury homes and regaled my own wife at a party with a story about a China trip that included a private plane for a party of about 10 (not clear she paid) -- that $46K for a subordinate with mortgage troubles isn't going to be a problem.
Put another way, at 10% the income from the loan would be $4,600 a year and the taxes about $2,000. A fraction, in other words, of what Tom Daschle didn't report with his little car service.
If you want to rag on Christie here, where were you for Daschle? Or are you just a partisan hack rather than a muckraker, Josh?
August 18, 2009 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Trust me, we were all over Daschle. That's why he's not currently employed at HHS.
But in any event, you are right about Corzine, though there are a couple of differences. Pretty clearly Corzine had a relationship with her that was other than employment.
And partly, I think it is just extremely weird for a civil servant to loan money to an immediate subordinate.
Bottom line is that, fairly or not, Christie's schtick is, "sure I'm a Republican but I'm moderate and honest."
What if neither of those two things is really true?
August 18, 2009 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Huh? Who is Carla Katz, and what does she have to do with this guy cheating on his wife?
August 18, 2009 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Many progressive and liberal Democrats were all over Tom Daschle's sorry ass, and most of us never shed a goddamned tear when that corporate shill was forced to withdraw his nomination as HSS Secretary. Next time, pay attention.
August 18, 2009 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
WHOA! What's with that TPM FP pic of the dude behind Christie (to our left) with the monstrously bruised face?
August 18, 2009 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
That looks more like a port-wine birthmark to me.
August 18, 2009 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Think that was the Christie Assistant that didn't get the 46k loan to pay off his dog track bets!
August 18, 2009 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Man, if only the Star-Ledger hadn't been gutted by cost cuts and layoffs. This story may already be out there and probably reported in more detail.
August 18, 2009 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
For a quick analysis of what makes this loan "to a friend" legally improper, check out Otherwise: http://blackstonetoday.blogspot.com/2009/08/lame-explanations-part-1.html
-GWC
August 18, 2009 11:36 PM | Reply | Permalink