Federal authorities have kicked off a probe of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration, alleging members may have broken the law by quashing grand jury indictments against the governor’s supporters.
The U.S. Department of Justice sent two investigators to talk to the person who made the allegations, Bennett Barlyn, the International Business Times reported. Mr. Barlyn was fired from the Hunterdon County prosecutor’s office in August 2010, and shortly after, filed a whistleblower suit against Mr. Christie and his administration.
His claim? That he had been wrongfully terminated as punishment for objecting to the dismissal of indictments of Mr. Christie’s supporters, IBT reported.
Mr. Barlyn said he met with the investigators at his home, IBT reported.
ABC News reported that the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey interviewed Mr. Barlyn, and that Mr. Barlyn confirmed the investigation was going forward.
“It is true,” he said, ABC News reported. “I … provided the investigators with names of people I thought could furnish firsthand information.”
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New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman denied claims Mr. Christie is the target of a new inquiry into possible corruption.
“Any characterization that we are investigating the governor about this is just not true,” said Mr. Fishman’s spokesman, Matt Reilly, ABC News reported. “We talk to people all the time. It doesn’t mean we’re investigating anybody.”
Mr. Barlyn, the man at the center of the case, later denied characterizing the inquiry “as a full-blown investigation.”
The probe is, however, examining the conduct of other current and former members of Mr. Christie’s gubernatorial administration, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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