A just released report from the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General revealed that the fiscally conservative Republican Governor, Chris Christie of New Jersey, routinely billed taxpayers for travel expenses over and beyond the government rate, with little or no justification when he served as a U.S. Attorney during the period 2007 and 2009.
According to the New York Times:
The report, by the department’s inspector general, examined travel expenses for all 208 people who served as a United States attorney from 2007 to 2009. It spoke of five who “exhibited a noteworthy pattern of exceeding the government rate and whose travel documentation provided insufficient, inaccurate or no justification for the higher lodging rates.”
While the report did not identify any prosecutors by name, the travel patterns of an official called “U.S. Attorney C” — the one “who most often exceeded the government rate without adequate justification” in terms of percentage of travel — match records about Mr. Christie that were released in the 2009 campaign for governor by his Democratic opponent, the incumbent, Jon S. Corzine.
Christie recently pulled the plug on the proposed rail tunnel under the Hudson River because, as he put it, New Jersey could not afford its rising share of the projected cost.
