EXCLUSIVE: Prosecutor sacked for bringing case against Christie cronies reveals ordeal at hands of New Jersey Governor's 'mafia'

Bennett Barlyn claims he was fired because he was prosecuting political cronies of Chris Christie for corruption

Was marched from office, summarily sacked, and the files were locked away in Trenton

Draws parallels with Bridgegate scandal, saying: 'It was mafia-esque

'I was given no due process, I was fired without explanation and other people were intimidated in the office to remain silent....it was the same modus operandi'



Barlyn, now a teacher on half his former $100,000 salary, is suing to uncover the files on the case, which have been locked away in Trenton

A prosecutor who was sacked after attempting to indict Chris Christie's political cronies for corruption told MailOnline today about his ordeal at the hands of the New Jersey Governor's 'mafia.'

Bennett Barlyn, a prosecutor for 18 years in New Jersey’s Hunterdon County, has spoken out following the revelations over the Bridgegate scandal to reveal his firsthand account of being fired and shamed at the hands of Christie and his political henchmen.

He said there were parallels between a criminal case he tried to prosecute – before, he says, it was unlawfully dismissed – and the Bridgegate scandal, where Christie’s staff closed off travel lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge, in order to retaliate against a Democratic mayor who had declined to endorse him for re-election.

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Bennett Barlyn

'It's the same modus operandi,' he said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with MailOnline. 'It's the governor's office again using a state agency in an improper way for political purposes'.

Barlyn is suing the state of New Jersey for records that he says will prove the case's dismissal was the product of political corruption.

He secured indictments against Deborah Trout, a county sheriff loyal to Republicans. She was accused of gross violations that included hiring staff without vetting them, supplying a Christie donor with a false law enforcement ID and forcing underlings to sign loyalty oaths.

According to Barlyn, the criminal case against Trout was moving along smoothly until the grand jury voted to indict her in March 2010.



When the charges became public, an indicted undersheriff, Michael Russo, allegedly told an aide that Christie will 'have this whole thing thrown out', according to The Hunterdon County Democrat. Another Sheriff's Officer Joseph Falat Jr, was also accused.



The day a judge unsealed the indictments, Dermot O'Grady, Christie's deputy attorney general, arrived suddenly to take over the prosecutor's office personally.

Barlyn was shown the door. He was stripped of his job and ushered out of the courthouse by armed guards.



Mafia Don? Barlyn is in no doubt Christie was pulling the puppet strings, saying he he governs like a gangster

Protected: Hunterdon Sheriff Deborah Trout, a Republican loyalist, saw corruption charges against her dropped suddenly

It was surprise to all involved. A woman on the jury told The New York Times in October that 'we had no real disagreements. It was cut and dried.'

Barlyn is in no doubt Christie was pulling the puppet strings. According to Barlyn, he governed like a gangster.

'It was mafia-esque,' Barlyn told MailOnline. 'I was given no due process, I was fired without explanation and other people were intimidated in the office to remain silent.

' I was called into the office and told to surrender my credentials, my phone and my badge to get into the building. I asked what was happening and they said I wasn't entitled to an explanation.'

He watched helplessly as the criminal case his office worked so hard lock down was tossed out just days after Christie's appointee got his hands on the reins. Charges were dropped against all three accused.

Then the Christie machine flexed its muscles, he claims.

‘The day the indictments were unsealed the Attorney General’s office kicked out a prosecutor and took over our office,’ Barlyn said, claiming all the evidence in the case was removed from his county and locked up in Trenton, the capital city of New Jersey.

Barlyn claims Attorney General Paula Dow, who served with the governor when he was the state's top federal prosecutor, acted on Christie's orders to install O'Grady in his place.

'The Attorney General works directly for the governor,' he explained. 'It's not an elected position. The governor is the Attorney General’s boss. What this reflects is [Christie's] complete disregard to the law.

Brought low: Barlyn was a $100,000 prosecutor before he crossed Christie's administration. Now he is suing to try and get his hands on the case files which have been locked away in Trenton



' It shows his willingness to hurt people who are principled and who do take their oaths of office really seriously. If you're in the way of his political ambitions you're a target, or at least a potential target.'

A spokesman for the Attorney General today told MailOnline: ‘The Barlyn case is a matter of pending litigation. We do not comment on matters of pending litigation.’

Last year, Christie's camp laughed off the accusations in the Times story. Michael Drewniak, the governor's top spokesman, said: ' This truly is some of the most wild-eyed conspiracy theories I’ve heard in a long time.'

Barlyn also claims that a 'cover-up' followed the governor's invasion of his turf.

'Governor Christie wanted nothing more than for me to remain silent and walk away with my tail between legs,' he said. 'That's the power of retaliation.

'Christie did what he did by firing me. But he also throws people under the bus to protect himself and insulate himself from accountability.



'There's inconvenience to people by closing the bridge down,' he told MailOnline, 'but he's also undermining the rule of law by dismissing valid criminal charges.'

I am the law: Barlyn told MailOnline that Christie, pictured today at his State of his State address, 'throws people under the bus to protect himself and insulate himself from accountability' and others are 'intimidated to remain silent'

Christie and his colleagues, he said, ‘ignored and cut out those who had been working on the case. They took all the evidence and sent it back to Trenton.'

Baryln expects a judge to decide on January 28 whether to release transcripts from the grand jury testimony in the corruption case.

He says if those records are made public, his lawsuit will likely succeed.

'That's the smoking gun,' Barlyn said. 'They’re fighting like hell to prevent those transcripts from becoming public.'

New Jersey's attorney general sent a cadre of five lawyers into court in August to oppose Barlyn's lawsuit.

'I brought the lawsuits to ensure I was compensated on damages that affected me and my wife and three children," he said, ‘'and also to have people know what happened.'

Now a schoolteacher living in Pennsylvania, he says he's earning less than half the $100,000 salary he once enjoyed as a prosecutor. Experts his lawyer retained say the damages he sustained are more than $1 million.

Barlyn noted a final similarity between his story and the 'Bridgegate' saga enveloping Governor Christie's office.