Christopher J. Christie needs no introduction to anyone who follows New Jersey politics. Before he was a Republican candidate for NJ governor, he was A U.S. Attorney under President George W. Bush. Christie investigated and prosecuted the state's Democratic politicians as if there were no tomorrow.
As it turns out, Mr. Christie has some family relations in high places across the Hudson River. According to the New York Times, Christie has an uncle (the brother of his aunt's husband) who is a high ranking member of the Genovese crime family, which is one of the five feared New York crime families, with crews operating in New Jersey. Admittedly it is a distant relationship. But apparently Christie did not reveal it in his FBI background investigation. http://www.nytimes.com/...
Those of you who don't spend their free time searching the net for organized crime news as I do, may not know who the Genovese family is. After reading many stories over the years about their exploits I definitely think they are no joke! Definitely not people I would screw around with.
One part of the article I found interesting was that Christie had visited his uncle in the Federal prison in Texas. Christie said he was in Texas to see a football game, and stopped by the jail when he was in town. I wish I could ask him what teams were playing and who won. I wonder if any reporters have asked. Surely he would remember the game if he went all the way to Texas to see it.
After reading this story I was extra curious to see how the other media in the region would report it, if at all. I held my nose and listened to 101.5 radio for a while Friday morning. I am loath to give them any publicity here but I think their take on this shows how they slant things. The Christie story came up but the talk show pundit downplayed the story, neglecting to mention Christie's relative was a member in the Mob convicted of racketeering, and assisting a fugitive, simply saying he was convicted of "some crime." And the fact that Christie visited the man as far away as a Texas fed prison was glossed over by saying he was in "some jail somewhere". Then the narrative quickly changed to how Governor Corzine is corrupt because he is endorsed by the firefighters union. And then it was the tired old "The Unions are trying to take over the world..." speech. Some segue. So associating with working people is corruption, but actually knowing mob guys is nothing to investigate?
Of course we don't get to pick our families, so blaming Chris Christie for his distant uncle's crimes would be guilt-by-association. But according to the Times, Christie did not reveal his Family ties in his background check.
Mr. Christie says his relationship to Mr. Fiumara never came up in his F.B.I. background check after his appointment as United States attorney, and he never raised it, though he says he assumed investigators were aware of it.
"It never came up"? He "assumed investigators were aware." He assumed? Indeed. I wonder how Christie when he was prosecutor would have handled a witness who said they did not tell investigators something about the mob, because "it never came up" and they "assumed investigators were aware of it."?