More Empty Rhetoric from AG Platkin About Equal Justice for the “Well-Connected.” What About Gov. Murphy’s Pals Spiller and Gill?

Will New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin ever live up to his words?  He repeatedly spouts high-sounding rhetoric about prosecuting political corruption and equal justice before the law but then sits silently while Gov. Murphy’s political pals, Sean Spiller and Brendan Gill, remain untouched.

Platkin took to the pages of northjersey.com to tout his creation of a new commission — with the nifty acronym TRUST — to help eliminate public corruption and restore trust in government.  In doing so, Platkin once again spouts much high-sounding but completely empty rhetoric:

• As New Jersey’s Attorney General, I have made rooting out corruption, in all its forms, a top priority.
• I know that, right now, too many in our state feel that the wealthy and well-connected play by a different set of rules.
• Corruption, when left unchecked, destroys the fundamental agreement between the government and the people … It fosters cynicism about public servants … and undermines our democracy …

And this whopper:

• My job … is to pursue any investigation, without fear or favor and without regard to where it may lead.

For certain public officials, Platkin has delivered: three Wildwood officials have been indicted for illegally availing themselves of full-time state health benefits when they were not full-time employees.

But what about Gov. Murphy’s pals NJEA President/gubernatorial candidate Sean Spiller and former-Murphy campaign manager/Democratic big-wig Brendan Gill?

According to the Montclair Local, Spiller similarly certified that he was a full-time employee and availed himself of $49,800 in benefits. That’s why the AG’s office subpoenaed Montclair Township for pay records over two years ago and why Spiller pleaded his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination over 400 times while testifying in the whistleblower lawsuit over this issue.

Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill has also been implicated in similar health benefits abuse. The Star-Ledger reported that Gill availed himself of the same state benefits coverage — with the same full-time work requirements — as the three Wildwood officials and Spiller.  All told, Gill received $223,257.

Murphy’s pals Spiller and Gill are the very definition of  “well-connected.” Murphy called Spiller his “dear friend,” and no wonder: Spiller was a senior officer when the NJEA spent $20 million becoming the top contributor to Murphy’s two runs for governor.  And Spiller is apparently a dear friend of Platkin’s as well, for Platkin saw the need to recuse himself from the Spiller investigation. Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill managed Murphy’s 2017 campaign for governor and ran the pro-Murphy Super PAC, New Direction New Jersey, to which the NJEA contributed $10.5 million.  Talk about well-connected!

So while the three Wildwood officials are under indictment, Platkin — New Jersey’s self-proclaimed crusader for equal justice willing to “pursue any investigation, without fear or favor” — has sat on the Spiller investigation for over two years, and there is no indication of any investigation of Gill at all.

So it appears that when confronted with real acts of public corruption by very well-connected public officials on his watch, rather than live up to his words and apply justice equally, Platkin spouts high-sounding platitudes, forms the (laughably named) TRUST commission, and lets Murphy’s pals off the hook.

We would ask Platkin: will New Jersey voters ever learn the truth about Spiller (one way or the other) before they vote in the gubernatorial primaries?