Posted on 09/19/2004 4:57:00 AM PDT by Libloather
N.J. to pay McGreevey legal bills
More than $64,000 has been billed, and more is expected. Republicans blasted the expense.
By Mitch Lipka
Inquirer Trenton Bureau
Posted on Sun, Sep. 19, 2004
TRENTON - More than $64,000 in legal bills racked up by Gov. McGreevey between March and June in a federal extortion case are being picked up by taxpayers, according to records released Friday.
Additional bills are expected for work done on McGreevey's behalf in that matter, as well as another that led to his announced resignation in August.
The governor's chief counsel hired former federal prosecutor William E. Lawler III, a Washington-based partner with the powerful Texas firm Vinson & Elkins, to represent McGreevey during a federal investigation into David D'Amiano, a Middlesex County businessman.
D'Amiano, a fund-raiser and longtime friend of the governor's, pleaded guilty this week to extorting $40,000 in cash and campaign contributions.
Nearly $47,000 in charges from Lawler's firm were for work done in March, when about 600 pages of documents subpoenaed from the Governor's Office in the D'Amiano investigation were released. Lawler bills at $420 an hour. Lawler said ethically he could say little about his role.
Micah Rasmussen, a spokesman for McGreevey, said that using public money to hire the firm was warranted because of Lawler's skills and experience.
"His expertise was instrumental in that public disclosure," Rasmussen said. He said people employed by state government are entitled to state-paid legal representation for matters that arise in the course of their official duties.
Republicans said the tab so far and those still to come should not be paid by taxpayers.
"The taxpayers should not be paying for the governor's personal mistakes and errors in judgment," said Brian Nelson, executive director of the New Jersey Republican State Committee.
When Christie Whitman was governor, she spent $170,000 in public funds on outside counsel for retiring Assembly Speaker Garabed "Chuck" Haytaian in a sexual-harassment case. She also authorized the payment of a $175,000 settlement.
Nelson said Democrats who proclaimed outrage over Haytaian's situation are hypocrites for not speaking out about McGreevey's bills.
All the bills from Vinson & Elkins, the most recent of which was submitted on July 27, are for work done in the D'Amiano case. Additional bills are expected from that case as well as for representation provided after McGreevey's former aide, Golan Cipel, threatened to file a sexual-harassment lawsuit against the governor.
McGreevey stunned the nation Aug. 12 with the declaration that he is gay, had had an affair with a man, and would resign on Nov. 15. McGreevey aides identified the man as Cipel, who claimed he was a victim and not a participant. He did not file a lawsuit.
Rasmussen said Lawler was particularly valuable for the role he played in staving off a potential lawsuit.
Lawler's billings started on March 4, two days after the FBI raided the state Democratic Committee's headquarters in Trenton. Agents were looking for information about D'Amiano, who tried to influence state and county officials to inflate the value of a Middlesex County farm for potential purchase by the state.
Outside counsel also was hired to represent the Department of Treasury and the Department of Agriculture, which also faced investigation in the D'Amiano probe. A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office could not provide details about those arrangements or the charges incurred.
This is crazy, we should not be paying for his behaviour!
I think McGreevy is part of the reason that NJ might be a red state in the coming election.
The rest of the state is catching on a little at a time, but I think and hope you are right.
"This state used to be a quagmire, now it's in morass."
Perhaps this is another reason he's not resigning in a timely manner -- he wants to get all the bills in first.
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