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August 12, 2004

Bringing down one of the good guys

Jim McGreevey always struck me as an honest politician. Which is why I could understand his resignation, amidst all of the scandals unfolding around him, even before I heard the details today.

McGreevey’s public troubles with Kushner began shortly before the donor was named to head the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

That nomination was dogged by months of questions about Kushner’s background and campaign donations.

In February 2003, Kushner withdrew his nomination. At the time, McGreevey called him "among the most exceptional individuals I have ever had the honor of calling friend.’’

Kushner’s influence also ties him to one of McGreevey’s earliest scandals. He signed the papers Israeli citizen Golan Cipel needed to work in the United States, and gave him a $30,000 a year marketing job.

Cipel -- the one-time poet who served in the Israeli Navy briefly -- was McGreevey’s choice to be his top homeland security adviser earning more than $100,000. Cipel had little experience and law enforcement officials decried his posting. Federal authorities refused to grant Cipel proper security clearances.

McGreevey adamantly stood by Cipel for months, grudgingly accepting his resignation in March 2002.

Kushner also helped Gary Taffet, McGreevey’s former chief of staff, campaign manager and longtime key aide.

In 1997, after McGreevey lost his first bid for governor, Kushner helped Taffet set up an insurance business. Four years later as McGreevey ran again, Kushner bought that business for $3.4 million.

Taffet is also the subject of an ongoing federal investigation related to deals he made while earning a company that sold and operated billboards.

Lawsuits by brother Murray Kushner and a former employer included allegations that Charles Kushner improperly diverted profits from his companies. The employee’s lawsuit charged that Kushner also made political contributions using other employee’s names, avoiding legal limits under campaign finance laws.

Federal authorities began investigations shortly after those allegations were made.

Kushner attempted to stifle that investigation by hiring prostitutes and videotaping a sex act between one of them and a witness in that case, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said Tuesday. Kushner’s lawyer denied the allegations.

Here are some more details about Kushner:

In August 2003, Kushner allegedly offered two co-conspirators $25,000 to find a prostitute willing to participate in a sex-for-blackmail scheme, according to the criminal complaint filed in federal district court.

Between August and November 2003, the two co-conspirators had no luck finding a hooker willing to cooperate in the scheme, so Kushner hit the streets of New York City where he personally found a call girl willing to help for as much as $10,000.

On Dec. 3, 2003 the prostitute traveled from New York City to the Red Bull Inn, in Bridgewater along Route 22. There, the hooker and one of the men Kushner had hired to carry out the plan rented a room and put the plan into action.

The following day, the hooker approached William Schudler at the Time To Eat restaurant in Bridgewater, where she told a damsel-in-distress story about having car trouble and needing a ride back to the motel.

Schudler directed the apparently distressed female by giving her a ride to the Red Bull Inn where he was told her car was. Once there the hooker invited Schudler up to her room, but he declined the invitation.

But the pair exchanged phone numbers. The next day, the prostitute called Schudler in the hopes of luring him to the motel room at the Red Bull Inn. This time she succeeded in getting Schudler to come to her room, where they had sex.

The entire encounter was caught by a hidden camera on videotape.

After Schudler left the room the two men hired by Kushner to carry out the scheme brought him the videotape. He viewed the tape immediately and allegedly told the men he was happy with the outcome. The hooker was paid as much as $10,000 for her part in the scheme, and the two men split the remaining $15,000.

Kushner then sat on the videotape. A few days later Kushner decided to go after a former employee he believed was cooperating with federal investigators.

He once again turned to the same two men, who carried out the previous sex-for-blackmail videotaping scheme. They got a referral for another New York City hooker from the prostitute that helped snare Schudler in the Bridgewater motel.

The second hooker approached Robert Yontef, a former Kushner Companies accountant, with the same damsel-in-distress routine used to lure Schudler into the same Bridgewater motel where the videotaping took place.

Yontef agreed to help the woman get to her stranded car, but balked at the hooker’s advances.

The second hooker was paid $2,000 for her efforts, according to the indictment.

Then on May 7, Kushner learned some of his employees had become targets of the federal probe. The next day he called the two co-conspirators and directed them to mail the steamy video and photographs made from the video to his sister, Estelle, and her children. Kushner wanted the video’s arrival to coincide with an engagement party being given for the Schudlers’ son.

According to the indictment, the men working with Kushner in the scheme allegedly talked Kushner out of sending the video to Schudler’s kids, but the steamy video was mailed off to his sister. After Estelle opened the package she turned the video and photographs over to Christie’s office, touching off the criminal complaint filed Tuesday.

So I can't say I'm suprised Kushner and his allies would get back at McGreevey - for what I don't know - by outing him. In fact, I'd believe it if they had been holding it over his head for a while.

N.J. governor, saying he’s gay, resigns office

TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey announced his resignation Thursday afternoon, saying he had had an extramarital affair with another man that could leave the state government vulnerable to undue outside influences.

“My truth is that I am a gay American,” McGreevey, a Democratic former prosecutor who has seen several political aides and fund-raisers accused of corruption, said at a televised news conference.

“Shamefully, I engaged in adult consensual affairs with another man, which violates my bonds of matrimony,” said McGreevey, 47, the married father of two. “It was wrong. It was foolish. It was inexecusable.”

McGreevey said the disclosure and a pending legal action, which he did not specify, could pose a “threat” to the government. “I am removing these threats by telling you about my sexuality,” he said.

The resignation is effective Nov. 15, McGreevey said. State Senate President Richard Codey will serve the rest of his term, which ends at the end of next year.

WABC-TV of New York reported that McGreevey was expecting a lawsuit by a former aide accusing him of sexual harassment. The station identified the former aide as Golan Cipel, who resigned as McGreevey’s security adviser in 2002 after months of questioning about his credentials and job qualifications.

A former Israeli sailor and a published poet, Cipel, 33, was criticized because he did not have a security clearance or law enforcement background. He had worked in television news and public relations.

No excuse for his behavior - or the corruption under his watch - but it is interesting that if you watch McGreevey's statement, he almost seems relieved about finally being honest with everyone - including himself.

Posted by Mike at August 12, 2004 05:15 PM

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