Governor Christie's US Attorney Expenses Questioned in Federal Report - Bloomberg

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie talks about his efforts to lower taxes and overhaul the state's public-employee pension system, the future of the Republican party and the Tea Party movement, and Christie's political future. Christie speaks with Margaret Brennan on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness." (This is an excerpt of the full interview. Source: Bloomberg)

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, while serving as U.S. attorney, billed taxpayers for hotel costs that exceeded the federal government’s lodging rates by as much as $242 a night, according to a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

The report highlights travel spending by five unidentified prosecutors among 208 who served as U.S. attorneys during 2007- 2009. One, identified as U.S. Attorney C, was Christie, his spokesman, Michael Drewniak, acknowledged. He said Christie explained the expenses when they were questioned during the 2009 campaign.

Attorney C exceeded the government room rate on 15 of 23 vouchers submitted during the years studied, spending a total of $2,176 more than the prescribed rate, the report said.

“The U.S. attorney provided insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification for 14 of 23 trips (61 percent) that exceeded the government rate,” the largest share of any attorney, the report said.

Christie, 48, is the first Republican elected governor in New Jersey, a Democratic stronghold, since 1997. During the 2009 campaign, he said he always attempted to get lodging at the government rate.

“There are only a few rooms at each hotel that are reserved for government rate,” Christie said in an interview with the Asbury Park Press last year. “If you got them, you got them. If you didn’t, you didn’t. I wouldn’t have slept in the park.”

Four Seasons

In one case, Christie stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C., for $475 a night, “more than double the government rate of $233 per night,” the inspector general’s report said. The report also called Attorney C’s decision to spend $798 on car service to and from airports in Boston and London “excessive.”

The analysis was reported earlier by the Associated Press and the Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dunstan McNichol in Trenton, New Jersey, at dmcnichol@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net.

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