Michael Mukasey

Ralph Marra, Jr., a career federal prosecutor, will become the Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.

Ralph Marra, Jr., a career federal prosecutor who has been with the Department of Justice since 1985, will become Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey at midnight, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's office.  U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey approved Christie's recommendation of Marra last week.  Christie will leave office at midnight and is expected to seek the Republican nomination for Governor.

Marra will serve for 210 days -- until June 29, 2009 -- unless a new U.S. Attorney is nominated and confirmed before then.

Getty Images Photo

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey will designate an Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. Ralph Marra,, Jr., the current First Assistant AUSA, has reportedly been recommended by Chris Christie for the post

Christopher Christie's early exit as federal prosecutor makes it easier for his top assistant, Ralph Marra, Jr., to become the Acting U.S. Attorney while the new President settles on a permanent replacement.  Traditionally, prosecutors sbmit their resignations effective with the change in administrations (January 20, 2009) and the U.S. Attorney General designates the First Assistant as Acting U.S. Attorney.  That person remains in office for four months, with a term that can be extedned by a panel of federal judges, until the President gets around to nominating a new prosecutor -- and until the U.S. Senate votes to confirm the nomination.  Christie didn't become U.S. Attorney until more than a year after George W. Bush took office.

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For Barack Obama, the process will be a bit easier: New Jersey has two Democratic U.S. Senators, and a Senate that is controlled by Democrats.  But appointing Christie's successor is not likely to be the top priority of the new adminisration.  Christie's departure 51 days before Obama takes office allows Michael Mukasey, Bush's Attorney General, to designate the Acting U.S. Attorney -- presumably Marra, a career federal prosecutor and a Democrat with close ties to Christie.   

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie is considered a likely candidate for the 2009 Republican nomination for Governor: Getty Images Photo
U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) wants U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to release his public and private schedules over the last two years "so that the public can make its own judgment regarding possible political activity by the U.S. Attorney."  Christie is considered a likely candidate for the 2009 Republican nomination for Governor.

Pallone says that he has heard "troubling reports" that Christie and some supporters have been holding campaign-related meetings.  He wants U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to clarify the role of federal prosecutors in politics.  Earlier this year, U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan resigned amidst speculation that he will seek the 2010 GOP nomination for Governor of Pennsylvania.  

"Over the last few months, and perhaps longer than that, Mr. Christie and/or his political lieutenants have traveled around the state promoting his potential candidacy for Governor in 2009. I find it wholly inappropriate that a sitting U.S. Attorney be allowed to so publicly use his office as a stepping stone for political gain," Pallone wrote in a letter to the Attorney General. "Outreach to the community and publicizing his successful efforts at combating corruption are laudable endeavors and important to the work of the Department of Justice. However, the clear pattern of pre-campaign actions of Mr. Christie, and his very public allies and surrogates, appear to cross the line into self promotion and abuse of the immense authority he wields as the state’s chief federal law enforcement officer."

Appearing before the House Judiciary Committee, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said he didn’t know when the Justice Department would respond to questions regarding federal monitor contracts and deferred prosecution agreements, and said he did not know the details of the contract given to former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

But Mukasey did say his department began reviewing procedures to award federal monitor contracts before key House members began seeking information.

“The increasing phenomenon of monitors is something that we noticed well before there came to be publicity about it and have been looking into it,” Mukasey said. “We've asked the Attorney General's Advisory Committee, which is a group of United States attorneys from around the country who can gather information from United States attorneys about the prevalence of the phenomenon and whether there is a way of coming up with best practices or guidelines.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch and then U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2001
U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch today defended U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s decision to award former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft a federal monitor contract worth up to $52 million.

“I don’t know anyone better than Ashcroft to do it, because if it’s not done right, that could severely damage the company,” Hatch told PolitickerNJ.com today.

Rep. Bill PascrellRep. Bill Pascrell isn’t satisfied with Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Pascrell, who was one of the early critics of the controversial federal monitoring contract that U.S. Attorney Chris Christie gave his former boss John Ashcroft, said that he was pleased that Mukasey admitted changes need to be made to how monitors are appointed. But, he said, Mukasey was not specific or detailed enough in his comments.

“The Attorney General’s testimony only highlights the fact that the Justice Department has been asleep at the wheel while federal prosecutors have had unmitigated power to offer deferred prosecution agreements to corporate offenders and hand out multi-million dollar monitoring agreements to their associates,” said Pascrell in a press release.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that the Justice Department continues to look into how federal oversight contracts are assigned, according to a report from the Star-Ledger.

The controversy over deferred prosecution agreements was touched off after U.S. Attorney Chris Christie assigned his former boss, John Ashcroft, to a federal monitoring contract with anywhere from $27 to $52 million.

Mukasey acknowledged that deferred prosecution agreements had recently become more common, and said that he was offered one before becoming Attorney General.

"Yes, we are looking at the phenomenon," the article quotes Mukasey as saying. "Yes, we are going to see if there should be standards."

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has ignored letters from Reps. Frank Pallone and Bill Pascrell on John Ashcroft's contract
Rep. Frank Pallone said that he hoped the days of a politicized Department of Justice were over when Alberto Gonzales resigned.

But so far, he has not been pleased with Gonzales’s successor, Michael Mukasey – at least not based on his response to Pallone’s concerns about deferred prosecution agreements, like the one that allowed U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to give his former boss, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, an oversight contract worth up to $52 million.

Pallone wrote two letters to the Justice Department – one in December and one in January—and has still not received a response to either.  He’s already introduced legislation regulating the practice of dolling out deferred prosecution agreements.  

“It’s no surprise to me that the Department of Justice is stonewalling,” said Pallone.  “Bush has had three Attorney Generals now -- all political.  I don’t think they uphold the law and they just can’t be trusted to do the right thing.”

At a news conference on Friday, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that the Justice Department continues to review the process prosecutors use to pick federal monitors in deferred prosecution agreements, and kept the door open to new guidelines that might make the selection process less political in the future.  Mukasey refused to criticize the $28 million to $52 million contract awarded to one of his predecessors, John Ashcroft. 

U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie
CONGRESS COULD ISSUE SUBPOENAS, HOLD HEARINGS

In a direct communication with U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey today, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee requested details of federal monitor contracts negotiated by New Jersey's United States Attorney, Christopher J. Christie, and said that if documents are not turned over to them quickly, they could issue subpoenas to obtain them, according to a source with knowledge of the Judiciary panels actions.

And House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers says he is likely to hold hearings on the need for federal oversight of deferred prosecution agreements.

Christie, a leading candidate for the 2009 Republican nomination for Governor, awarded former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft a federal monitor contract worth up to $52 million over the next eighteen months, and has given out lucrative contracts to several other politically connected lawyers, according to published reports.

The New York Times reported today that the Justice Department is conducting an internal review of deferred prosecution agreements, though a spokesman for the department said the Justice Department has been having ongoing discussions about the selection of federal monitors for several months and was not prompted by reports of Christie's deal with Ashcroft, according to Peter A. Carr, a spokesman for the Department of Justice in Washington. "There is no inquiry into that selection. Likewise, the consideration of guidance was not prompted by the actions of any U.S. Attorney," Carr said in a statement released today.

In a letter to Mukasey, Conyers chastised the Justice Department for failing to respond to letters from at least two Congressmen,and said that a report in today's New York Times "reinforces a concern over the lack of real oversight and transparency of deferred prosecution agreements."

"These agreements, which directly affect billions of dollars in corporate business as well as the livelihoods of millions of Americans employed by these corporations, have been completely shielded from review by either the Legislative or Judicial branches of the government," Conyers wrote in a letter also signed by Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law Chairwoman Linda Sanchez, and Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. of New Jersey.