Posted on 08/15/2004 9:27:37 AM PDT by dead
TRENTON BUREAU
Governor McGreevey's resignation and confession about a gay affair came after a series of demands for money and then, mysteriously, for government approval of a medical school, according to a ranking administration official.
A lawyer representing Golan Cipel, the former homeland security aide identified by administration sources as the man who had the affair with McGreevey, began asking for money to stop a lawsuit in late July, the official said.
The demands continued until shortly before the governor's startling announcement Thursday, when a Cipel representative asked that the governor help New York-based Touro College get state approval for a medical school, the official said.
"They started off at $50 million," the official said. "They progressively came down to $5 million. And then Touro College came in at the last minute."
Touro College has been represented by the consulting firm of former Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, a longtime McGreevey rival, since December 2003, according to an official of Torricelli's firm. But the official, Sean Jackson, disavowed any knowledge of Cipel's dealings.
"We're providing general advice, fund-raising strategy, and advice about opening a medical school in New Jersey," Jackson said. "I organized one meeting with some state folks and the college about the process. During all our meetings we've had with the college and on conference calls, Mr. Cipel was never involved in anything.''
The Jewish college had previously sought approval for the state's first private medical school to no avail. Among its board members is developer and top McGreevey donor Charles Kushner, who is facing federal charges that he tried to obstruct an investigation into his fund-raising by hiring prostitutes to seduce witnesses. Kushner once employed Cipel and sponsored his immigration from Israel.
But an attorney for Kushner, an avid philanthropist affiliated with a number of Jewish organizations, said his client had "absolutely nothing" to do with Cipel's alleged demands.
"Mr. Kushner has had no contact of any kind with Golan Cipel for years now," said the attorney, Benjamin Brafman. "Yes, at one time he employed him and sponsored his work visa, but there's no truth to this rumor. This is a false story somebody has planted. There's absolutely nothing to it."
Administration officials say they never negotiated with Cipel's lawyers, who, according to one, made only "vague references to a detailed suit that was going to be filed." But last weekend, after more than two tense weeks of demands, the governor decided he had little choice but to admit to the affair and step aside. The administration referred the matter to federal authorities, who say they are investigating.
Flanked by his wife and parents at the State House on Thursday afternoon, McGreevey told reporters and administration officials "I am a gay American," expressed remorse about his affair, and said he would resign as of Nov. 15.
But Cipel's lawyers said their client never had an affair with McGreevey and is not even gay, according to an article by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which was posted on the paper's Web site Saturday. The lawyers, Allen Lowy and Rachel Yosevitz, said in an interview that Cipel repeatedly rejected sexual advances made by the governor while working for him in 2002, the newspaper reported.
In a brief statement that Lowy read to reporters in Manhattan on Friday, Cipel did not deny being gay and said that he had "come to understand" he was a victim after he "finally dared to reject Governor McGreevey's advances."
Lowy has also denied that he had demanded a payoff, and has accused the governor's representatives of trying to hush up the allegations with offers of money. But the lawyer said "only time will tell" whether Cipel will file the threatened lawsuit.
Administration officials could shed little light on why Touro College might have come up in the hours before McGreevey's announcement.
Gretchen Michael, director of communications for the state Department of Health and Senior Services, confirmed that health Commissioner Clifton Lacy met in Trenton with Touro President Bernard Lander in November 2002. But she described the meeting as a routine courtesy.
Lacy, she said, informed Lander that his department did not have the authority to establish a medical college. He referred Lander to state Commission on Higher Education officials, who could not be reached Saturday.
Torricelli's firm has had preliminary talks on Touro's behalf with officials at the state Division of Consumer Affairs, which includes the Board of Medical Examiners, according to Jackson. Division spokeswoman Genene Morris said Saturday that there are no private medical schools in New Jersey and no applications to establish any.
Calls made to Lander's home and Manhattan office were not returned Saturday. Lander's chief assistant, Elihu Marcus, also did not respond to messages.
Established in 1970, Touro has an enrollment of 16,000 and is the creation of Lander, an 89-year-old Jewish educator and pioneering member of New York City's first civil rights commission. Although centered in Manhattan and the Bronx, it has 29 campuses from Moscow to California, and recently opened a small campus in Berlin. Lander has described Touro as a "no-frills" school that "serves the Jewish people and strengthens Jewish heritage.''
Kushner serves on Touro's board along with other prominent Jewish developers and businessmen, including Woodbridge real estate tycoon Sam Halpern and Howard Jonas, the chairman of IDT Corp. in Newark. Reached at his home Saturday, Halpern said Kushner was involved with Touro's efforts to establish a medical school, but said he knew no details.
"Charlie's out there working,'' he said.
Brafman, Kushner's attorney, said he did not know if Kushner played a part in Touro's lobbying for a New Jersey college.
Cipel served as a $110,000-a-year homeland security adviser to McGreevey for a few months during 2002, the governor's first year in office, and later held lobbying jobs with firms close to the administration. He left the government amid a flurry of questions about his lack of qualifications for the post, among them that he could not attain security clearances because he was not a U.S. citizen.
At the time the governor vehemently denied innuendo about his relationship with Cipel, which never rose above a rumor passed around political and media circles.
McGreevey's aides have stressed that the governor, a twice-married father of two, made an extraordinarily painful decision and then chose a time frame for maximum government stability and an orderly transition.
Under the current plan, Democratic Senate President Richard J. Codey of West Orange would serve as acting governor for the remainder of McGreevey's term, through January 2006. Only a resignation by Sept. 3 would clear the way for a special election this November.
But Republicans have argued that the governor's poor judgment in appointing Cipel is the issue - not his sexual preference - and demanded an immediate resignation. They say the governor's delayed resignation amounts to a political calculation that keeps the office in Democratic hands.
Trenton Correspondent Herb Jackson contributed to this article.
LOL
-one has to really wonder whether this cipel guy even has a clue........he will be lucky to stay out of jail now. Blackmail is a crime in this country.
Am I the only one who is completely confused? I can't figure out what is going on here, who is linked to who, who did what to who, and why.
Can someone explain it? Maybe it is because I am not "from Joisey"...
Does anyone else think the McGr's outing anything had anything to do with his support of the last security threat elevation?
They're all linked together by one thing: crime.
So is soliciting somebody to commit blackmail on your behalf.
Keep your eye on The Torch. If there's something corrupt going down in NJ, you can be sure Bob knows about it and will figure out ways in which he can benefit from it.
If you and I had done what the " Torch" did to get thrown out of the Senate campaign we'd be in prison now .In return we got lautencadaver .
The D'Amiano case (in which McGreevey is on tape using a pre-established code word "Machiavelli" in a conversation with a man who seeking millions from the government in exchange for tens of thousands in campaign cash) and the Kushner Case (in which a man arranged millions in illegal campaign contributions, and hired a hooker to seduce and blackmail his own brother-in-law) are both very close to bringing down some real big people in NJ government.
Now everybody, from McGreevey to Cipel to Torricelli to DeFrancesco and many more, are all spinning in different directions, trying to position themselves for their defense.
If either McGreevey or Cipel "tragically" commit "suicide" in the next few weeks, you'll know I'm right.
It's a shame that newjerseycide doesn't flow as nicely as arkancide.
Thanks, dead. I am gonna google on the D'Amiano case to see if I can figure this out. Know nada about it, or Jersy politics for that matter.
Time to get up to speed, I think, so I can figure out what the real truth is. Sure can't count on the pols or the media to explain it to us peasants.
Is this the new code word for the new, more sensitive mafia shake-down?
I hope, at some point, an appropriate amount of condemnation is directed at the Israeli flamer. Everyone involved was slimy, and should be hammered.
Clearly, the thieves needed a way to launder millions to pay Cipel hush money.
Rumor has it that the FBI is investigating McGay's part in the extortion scheme, speculating that tax dollars were to be used.
Some point to the state budget and several multi-million items labeled unspecified, and McGay's borrowing over $1 billion to balance the budget.
Master extorter Kushner sits on the board and criminal mastermind Torricelli's firm represents Touro College in the NJ medical school deal.
Perfect set-up to launder money.
Would work something like this: The college would submit its financial needs to the state for building, staffing, etc---for say $150 million.
But actually it needs only maybe $100 million.
The rest is placed in friendly banks with accounts labeled Building Fund, Director's Account or Staff Accounts.....and friendly bankers (Donnie Di is on the Commerce bank board) make sure that the only people who have access to these account are Kushner and Torricelli.
Kushner and Torricelli and McGravy have their crooked eyes on all that wonderful fedreral Medicaid money to flow in to the medical college as well.
If Cipel had screwed with the Clintons the way he tried to set up McGreevey, he'd be hanging out with Vince Foster, Ron Brown and Danny Ferguson's wife today.
Thanks, Liz. I couldn't figure out how the "medical school" fit in the mess, and your explanation makes sense.
Now what I can't figure out is why these politicians think they are "entitled" to be trusted with our hard earned money paid via taxes. At some point people everwhere in the USA are going to get fed up with having to obey the law, when so many of the pols give it nothing but lip service.
I can't help but have a grudging awe of Torricelli. I just stand back amazed at how good he is at what he does. He makes everybody else look like ridiculous hacks.
He is basically the Michael Jordan of corruption.
If anyone would like a model as to how the democrats would govern the nation when they are in charge? I give you the New Jersey and Washington D. C. examples.
In short, corruption and ineptitude is the democrat rule when they run all branches of government.
"They're all linked together by one thing: crime."
Explaining New Jersey Dem politics: Frank Hague lives.
Very interesting and credible post. It would probably be a good idea to look at all newly established medical schools across the country. Anyone know of any?
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