On Friday afternoon, CNN reported that the federal prosecutors in the Justice Department’s public integrity division are likely to soon file corruption charges against Robert Menendez, the senior U.S. senator from New Jersey.
The story was just one of several allegations of misconduct against elected officials in the Garden State to get an airing last week. On Thursday, a former state environmental commissioner accused a top aide to Gov. Chris Christie of interfering in a decade-long pollution case to give a break to ExxonMobil, prompting a state legislative hearing later this month. And on Wednesday, testimony continued in a federal courtroom in Newark where Joseph Ferriero, a former county Democratic party chairman, is being retried on corruption charges stemming from fees he extracted from developers and others looking to do business in the state.