There was a piece of land owned by a farmer I think in Edison where McGreevey was mayor. This farmer has been trying to sell this land for years but couldn't sell it or couldn't get what he thought was enough money for it due to zoning or something. This guy D'Amiano got this farmer to donate 40k to McGreevey in return the state would buy his land for 5 million although it wasn't worth anything near that. The sign that McGreevey accepted the deal was that he would use the word "Machiavelli" when they met. He used it in the first sentence when he met the farmer, they had never met before. Somehow this was all taped. McGreevey said he always uses literary references !!! I believe the sentence he used was " I heard you are reading "The Prince " by Machiavelli" or something like that.
The Machiavelli thing happened after he became governor.