Watchdog report targets New Jersey governor

By Ed O'Keefe



New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).

Tough-talking, budget-busting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) has a new nickname: "Attorney C."

The fiscally conservative governor and former U.S. attorney faced accusations during his 2009 campaign that he often stayed in expensive hotels that exceeded the government's approved reimbursement rates.

In a report released Monday, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine confirmed that five unnamed former U.S. attorneys, including Christie, routinely exceeded government lodging rates "by large amounts, with insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification."

Government lodging rates vary depending on location and dates of travel. In 2009, the government rate in New York City ranged from $360 during the busy holiday season and $259 during summer months. The government rate for Peoria, Ill. in 2009 was $70 per night for the entire year.

Though the report does not use names, three of the former U.S. attorneys were men, two were women, and the description of hotel bills submitted by "Attorney C" match news reports about Christie's hotel bills published in the final weeks of the 2009 campaign. Christie was one of two former U.S. attorneys who declined to be interviewed by Fine's office.

According to the report's review of reimbursements made between 2009 and 2009, "Attorney C" submitted 23 expense reports that included lodging costs. Of those, 15 exceeded the government lodging rate and 14 gave insufficient justifications, the report said. The 14 expense reports totaled $2,176, the report said.

"In terms of the percentage of travel, U.S. Attorney C was the U.S. Attorney who most often exceeded the government rate without adequate justification," the report concluded.

A stay at Boston's boutique Nine Zero Hotel cost taxpayers $449 per night, more than double the government's reimbursement rate for the city, the report said. Christie's secretary told investigators it was a "coincidence" that he attended meetings in the same hotel. A stay at Washington, D.C.'s Four Seasons hotel cost $475 per night, more than double the $233 per night reimbursement rate. Christie stayed at the Georgetown hotel because he had to give an early morning speech there, according to the justification memo included with his expense report.

The governor's office declined to comment Monday, but a spokesman confirmed Christie declined to be interviewed by Fine's office. Christie defended the expenses in several interviews last year, saying he always sought rooms set aside at the government rate.

"There are only a few hotel rooms in each hotel that are reserved for government rate," Christie told New Jersey's Daily Record last October "If you got them, you got them. If you didn't, you didn't. I wouldn't have slept in the park."

"It wasn't waste," he told the Associated Press around the same time. "I had to go someplace for part of my job. We tried to get the government rate. We couldn't. So my only alternative would have been to not go."

The vast majority of officials serving as U.S. attorneys during the two-year review period rarely or never exceeded the government lodging rate, the report concluded.

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