OREGON GOVERNOR LACKED THE RESUME OF A FORMER UNITED STATES ATTORNEY: A TALE OF TWO GOVERNORS

By Louis Manzo / February 16, 2015

     This past week, serious New Jersey journalists and other media sleuths—at least those with an attention span greater than the mayfly’s lifecycle—may have been scratching their heads when the news broke that the just resigned Oregon Governor, John Kitzhaber, was under Federal investigation.

     Kitzhaber is in meltdown mode over a deepening influence-peddling scandal surrounding his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes. Allegedly, Hayes pocketed $118,000 in previously undisclosed consulting fees in 2011 and 2012 from the Washington-based Clean Economy Development Center while also advising the governor on energy policy. The consulting fees were never revealed in annual disclosure filings. Kitzhaber is insisting that there is no conflict of interest. The United States Attorney for the District of Oregon, S. Amanda Marshall, has subpoenaed extensive personal and government documents and is now investigating. (more…)

********BULLETIN********LATEST CHRISTIE SCANDAL UNDER FEDERAL INVESTIGATION WAS FEATURED IN “RUTHLESS AMBITION”

By Louis Manzo / February 8, 2015

     This past week, word leaked out of yet another scandal now under federal investigation concerning the checkered past of NJ Governor Chris Christie—a contender for the 2016 GOP nomination for President. In the very first chapter of “Ruthless Ambition” [the chapter can be read for free on the Amazon website], I wrote about this very incident.

     The matter involves the dismissal of a distinguished Hunterdon County Prosecutor for failing to drop criminal charges against a Christie for Governor Campaign supporter. The passage from the book reads as follows:

   … Unbelievably, at this very same time, Lieutenant Governor Guadagno was at the center of another political and potentially criminal scandal still brewing, the news and facts for which were still evolving as word of the Hoboken scandal broke. A veteran prosecutor ousted by Governor Christie’s administration accused the Governor’s regime of corruption in court documents. Bennett A. Barlyn, a once Assistant Prosecutor in the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office, was working an ironclad criminal case against the Hunterdon County Sheriff and two of her deputies in 2010. (more…)