The bottom line? You don’t take a “leave” if you are innocent. When is the “perp” walk? I want to make sure that my TIVO is on!
http://www.politickernj.com/editor/23192/ferriero-will-take-leave-bergen-dem-chairman
http://www.northjersey.com/news/Ferriero_takes_leave_from_firm.html
Mr. Ferriero has only taken a “leave of absence” which, as hoped by many us who want values in the Democratic party, will turn into –out of sight; out of mind–.
What will be even more interesting is when the other shoe falls.
The American justice system works under the concept of innocent until proven guilty. We will all have to wait and for the final verdict, although Mr. Christie does not usually seem to proceed until he has a very solid case. Added to that fact is the unknown quantity of who now feels free enough to speak out.
There is a huge difference between those of us seeking reform for the Democratic party and the agenda of Ferriero minions. The minions will be seen scurrying like cockaroaches back under the rocks and into the cracks from which they came.
Corruption won’t flourish in N.J.
Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Brown and Weysan Dun, special agent in charge of the FBI, Newark Division, just held a press conference outside the Newark courthouse where a jury found former state Sen. Joseph Coniglio guilty on six of nine counts in a federal corruption trial.
Brown and Dun trumpeted the jury’s findings as an indicator that corruption won’t be allowed to flourish in New Jersey.
“Unfortunately, Sen. Coniglio now joins the ever expanding list of New Jersey politicians and legislators who have disgraced their public offices, who have forgotten the oath they took as public servants that requires them to act in the public’s interest and not their own,” Brown said.
“We take no joy in convicting yet another public official in the state of New Jersey,” Dun said. “This event today is not a cause for celebration. It should be a cause for reflection on the part of the citizens of New Jersey and the part of other public officials in the state of New Jersey.”
Both officials said that the case had originated out of the U.S. Attorney’s office’s investigation into the New Jersey Legislature’s budgeting process, and in particular the “Christmas tree grant” program under which individual legislators requested money for pet projects.
Reporters asked Brown and Dun why hospital officials had not been prosecuted, though they are one-half of the bribery scheme in which jurors found Coniglio complicit.
Brown did not answer that question directly, but said that the investigation continues.
Brown also said later in answer to a reporter’s question that if Coniglio had, in fact, been a plumbing consultant for the hospital, the case would not have been brought.
“What is very clear is that no public official is permitted under the law to sell his office for his personal gain,” Brown said. “Had Sen. Coniglio done legitimate work for the hospital, he would have been allowed under the current guidelines to be paid for his role.”