New Jersey-Style Political Chutzpa
New Jersey is known for the pervasiveness of political corruption at all levels of government. Recently, two examples of ‘“soft corruption” have re-surfaced that epitomize the extraordinary level of effrontery that is endemic to New Jersey politics. I’m using former New Jersey State Senator William Schluter’s definition of “soft corruption” — “unethical transgressions carried out in the quest for political power or personal benefit, achieving results that work against the public interest; and it’s all legal.”
When you think that you have seen it all, be assured that someone in New Jersey politics will do something even more galling than you ever imagined.
Let’s begin with Bridget Anne Kelly, of Bridgegate fame, who recently announced her intention to run for County Clerk in Bergen County. Fort Lee is in located in Bergen County. Ms. Kelly’s political career was abruptly ended in 2013 when she typed the phrase, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”
In 2013, Kelly was a deputy chief of staff to Gov. Chris Christie. She, along with Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the Port Authority, implemented a clandestine plan to re-direct access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee to create massive four-day traffic jam as retribution against the town’s Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich, for refusing to endorse the governor’s 2013 re-election.
Kelly and Baroni conspired with David Wildstein, the confessed mastermind of the political revenge plot, to carry out the re-alignment under the guise of an Authority-sanctioned traffic study. Baroni and Kelly were indicted by a federal court. Baroni spent three months of his 18-month term in prison prior to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning in 2016 both his and Kelly’s convictions on the basis that the federal fraud laws which were applied cannot be used as general tools to fight public corruption.
If Ms. Kelly wins the Republican nomination for County Clerk, she will face incumbent Democratic Bergen County Clerk John Hogan, who upon hearing about her announced intention to run said, “Bridget Kelly is entitled to try and get her life back together and I wish her the best in that regard, but the people here in Bergen County who had to deal with the Bridgegate scandal up close are never going to forgive her role in punishing them to further Chris Christie’s vindictive agenda.”
Let me make one thing clear
— Ms. Kelly has the right to run and there is a part of me that admires her willingness to address the “albatross of Bridgegate” head-on rather than seeking-out a less visible position in government or the private sector.
Ms. Kelly should expect to hear campaign advertisements quoting Associate Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who noted in the decision exonerating Ms. Kelly that it was not because she was innocent of wrongdoing, but rather than she skirted the law because she did not accept kickbacks or bribes for her actions.
Only in New Jersey could someone who beat a rap on a technicality have the chutzpa to seek public office in the very venue in which they committed their dastardly deed. I’m waiting for Ms. Kelly’s comeback ads in which she makes the case that she didn’t do anything wrong since the federal fraud statues do not criminalize being an unethical public official who for no reason other than political payback
would use deception to reduce Fort Lee’s access lanes to the George Washington Bridge — and thereby jeopardize the safety of the town’s residents.
I believe that Senator Robert Menendez got off too easily when the Justice Department decided in January 2018 to not retry him, after an 11-week trial resulted in a hung jury, on charges that he accepted bribes, e.g., 19 free flights on a private jet, three nights at a five-star Paris hotel, five rounds of golf at a private club in West Palm Beach and access to an exclusive Dominican resort from Dr. Saloman Melgen, a wealthy ophthalmologist in Florida, in return for political favors.
In fairness to Senator Menendez, it is important to note that after the trial, one juror told reporters the jury was split 10-2 on all counts in favor of acquittal. It is also important to point out that Senator Menendez didn’t get off scot free. In April 2018, he was “severely admonished” by the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee. A letter from the committee stated: “The Committee has found that over a six-year period you knowingly and repeatedly accepted gifts of significant value from Dr. (Salomon) Melgen without obtaining required committee approval, and that you failed to publicly disclose certain gifts as required by Senate Rule and federal law. Additionally, while accepting these gifts, you used your position as a Member of the Senate to advance Dr. Melgen’s personal and business interests.” Ruling that he violated senate rules, federal law and standards of conduct, the committee issued a Public Letter of Admonition and directed him to repay all gifts.
While the Senator got a pass, Dr. Melgen was sentenced to 17 years in prison and ordered to repay the $42 million he swindled from Medicare. In what was described at the time as the biggest Medicare fraud case in history, Dr. Melgen was convicted of 67 counts of fraud in federal court. According to Parade Magazine, the good doctor “persuaded older patients to undergo sometimes painful tests and procedures for phantom illnesses, all to defraud Medicare.” More specifically, federal regulators found that Dr. Melgen improperly split single vials of the eye drug Lucentis into 2 or 3 treatments instead of the single dose the vial was intended for. Not only did this scam net Melgen a financial windfall, but also, according to CDC guidelines, put patients at risk of infection.
Prosecutors showed that between 2008 and 2013, Dr. Melgen became the nation’s highest-paid Medicare doctor, building his practice by giving elderly patients unnecessary eye injections. During the trial some of the nation’s top eye doctors said they were appalled by his tactics. “It’s terrible and disgraceful and I’m embarrassed for our entire profession,” Dr. Julia Haller, ophthalmologist-in-chief at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, testified after reviewing patient charts that showed Melgen billed Medicare to treat prosthetic eyes and people who were blind.
Recently, Dr. Melgen was one of those pardoned by President Trump in his final days in office. Melgen’s commutation resulted in him getting 13 years shaved off his 17-year sentence. When Senator Menendez was asked about the pardon he said, “Months ago, I was asked if I could offer insight about an old friend, and I did, along with what I understand were more than 100 individuals and organizations, including his former patients and local Hispanic groups familiar with Sal’s leadership and philanthropy in the South Florida community.”
Only in New Jersey could a sitting U.S. Senator who was severely admonished by his colleagues for accepting significant gifts from a doctor who mistreated old people’s eyes and bilked Medicare for tens of millions of dollars, have the chutzpa to publicly call for the sentence of the disgraced doctor to be reduced.