Christie won't testify on Tuesday

By Matt Friedman, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

United States Attorney Christopher Christie and former Attorney General John Ashcroft will not testify in front of the House Judiciary subcommittee next week.

The hearing, which was tentatively but not officially set for Tuesday, has been postponed until next month.

The Judiciary Committee had asked Christie to testify about the lucrative federal monitoring contract he gave to John Ashcroft to oversee the medical implant company Zimmer Holdings, LLC. Christie had said he would testify if asked by the Justice Department.

Justice Department spokesman Paul Bresson did not say whether his department had asked Christie to testify, or whether they were refusing to do so.

“I don’t know that we’d want to really have a discussion about that,” he said. “As far as providing an appropriate department representative for the hearing, we’ll respond to that when the hearing is rescheduled.”

Michael Torra, chief-of-staff to California Rep. Linda Sanchez, who will chair the hearing, said that the committee had still not heard back from the Justice Department regarding its request for Christie to testify. The request was made two weeks ago.

Torra said that the committee needed to work out exactly who the witnesses would be before going through with the hearing.

"We haven’t really gotten word from the Justice Department either way," said Torra. "It's not that they’ve refused or said yes. The conversations are still ongoing.”

MATT FRIEDMAN is a PolitickerNJ.com Reporter and can be reached via email at matt@politicsnj.com.

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Comments

Permission?

posted by peterendina

Let's think of all the NJ pols that we know...Which ones need permission to do anything and from whom?

02/20/08 2:20 pm

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Do the members of the House

posted by Republican Conscience

Do the members of the House Judiciary subcommittee have valid fishing licenses?

"Maybe the reason Senator John McCain's campaign has failed to get any traction is that the debates show him to be the kind of arrogant and condescending know-it-all who would be the most dangerous kind of President." Thomas Sowell, Random Thoughts, December 2007

02/21/08 4:35 pm

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Fishing?

posted by Nick Lento

So you're saying that it's OK to buck congressional oversight? How about subpoenas? Is it OK to ignore those too?

Hey, why not just declare Bush King, and Christie as Grand Inquisitor?

Do you really want to live in a lawless America where everything is done your way?

I assure you, at some point they'll be coming after you. Dictatorships are evil and unsustainable...whether you like it or not we are a nation of laws......and that even applys to your idol, Chris Christie.

From Frederick Douglass

If there is no struggle there is no progress......Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

02/22/08 1:08 am

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Nick,

posted by Republican Conscience

They have no basis to investigate except that they don't like the choice. That is unconstitutional. By what constitutional authority does congress have the right to appoint a subcommittee with arbitrary supena power, to demand testamony of anyone who is not part of congress? We have courts and judges for that. Last week we had an inappropriate abuse of power with Senate Hearings involving "The Rocket." Where are 5th Amendment rights in these political motivated farces?

If it is illegal to take HGH then the court has jurisdiction. If it is a Basball rule then the MLB has jurisdiction. In either case Congess is out of bounds!!

Let whoever has any evidence of wrong doing go to the proper juridiction, that would be criminal court an file a charge or MLB and file a complaint. I'm afraid you're showing your comunistic tendencies.

This subcommittee is fishing. What is worse, they are trespassing on the jursdictions of entities that have ownership.

02/22/08 11:18 am