Will The Honest Democrats Please Come Forward

It’s hard to believe a grand jury would be the least bit surprised by anything involving a New Jersey politician. The Democrats had a banner year last year, as chronicled in this post. It’s just more of the same – corruption, corruption, corruption.

We think it’s time for the honest Democrats to step forward and do a complete house cleaning – their party is completely out of control. Can anyone think of a single reason the people of New Jersey should entrust running the state to the Democrats? Read about the latest scandalhere, snips below.

A state grand jury is hearing testimony into allegations that former State Police officials and a former state senator conducted a covert operation that used confidential files in an effort to smear Republicans and help James E. McGreevey run for governor four years ago.

The grand jury investigation began in September, 10 months after the accusations were detailed in The Star-Ledger and only weeks after McGreevey announced he would resign as governor because of a sex scandal. The probe, which has been conducted in secret so far, is focusing on the alleged theft and misuse of confidential State Police records, according to two state officials with direct knowledge of the case.

"They granted me immunity," Bellaran said. "I testified three times. Once they asked me a question, I started spewing. ... These people (on the grand jury) had their mouths agape."

Bellaran said he took grand jurors through the key points he had already made both in sworn statements and in interviews with The Star-Ledger. Bellaran said that between 1999 and early 2002, he and Lt. Col. Cajetan "Tommy" DeFeo took confidential information, including personnel orders and medical records stored under lock and key, from State Police files, with the aim of damaging state Republicans and helping McGreevey, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, in the 2001 race.

Bellaran said the operation was orchestrated by McGreevey's longtime mentor and ally, then-state Sen. John Lynch (D-Middlesex). Some of the information was passed to Lynch for use in legislative hearings into the State Police practice of racial profiling, Bellaran said. Other information was passed to newspapers in an attempt to generate stories aimed at humiliating people close to then-Gov. Christie Whitman.

Lynch denied any knowledge of such an operation and said he was unaware of the grand jury probe.

Three ranking officials familiar with the investigation confirmed a probe was opened after months of private reviews inside the Attorney General's Office. Bellaran first made the allegations in a deposition in a civil lawsuit in September 2003.