(The Center Square) — Political candidates who don’t hold elected office can be charged under New Jersey’s public official bribery laws, according to a ruling by the state’s highest court.
In a unanimous decision issued on Monday, the New Jersey Supreme Court sided with state officials by ruling that candidates running for elected office do not need to win elections to be subject to the “plain words” of the state’s bribery statute.
The law was challenged by Jason O’Donnell, a former state lawmaker and 2018 candidate for mayor of Bayonne, who allegedly accepted $10,000 in cash from an individual in exchange for the promise to appoint them as tax counsel for the city.
He filed a lawsuit arguing that the state’s bribery law doesn’t apply to his case because he didn’t win the election.
But the justices dismissed that argument, ruling that the bribery law is “not limited to public servants, party officials, or successful candidates” but “any person who accepts an improper benefit — incumbents, candidates who win, and candidates who lose.”
“The law plainly states it is no defense that someone in the defendant’s position was not yet qualified to act,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote in the 28-page ruling. “And ordinary people can understand that New Jersey’s bribery statute does not allow them to accept a bag of cash in exchange for promising a future appointment to a city post.”
The court’s ruling means a 2019 indictment against O’Donnell, dismissed by a trial court judge in 2021, will be reinstated. The other defendant is also facing bribery charges.
New Jersey’s bribery law has been a focus of attention since a federal court ruling in 2012 dismissed bribery charges against another former Assemblyman Louis Manzo, with a federal judge concluding that he couldn’t be charged under the law because he wasn’t holding an elected office.
But the Supreme Court’s ruling said the U.S. District Court ruling, in that case, didn’t apply because “the language of the bribery statute applies to candidates for office and is not ambiguous, even without resort to other relevant sources, the rule of lenity does not apply.”
“The federal district court found the statute did not extend to candidates for office who are not elected,” justices said.
Gov. Phil Murphy vetoed legislation that would have applied bribery laws to candidates last year, calling for stricter rules. At the time, Murphy said he was concerned that the move would “allow those who offer, solicit or accept bribes for corrupt acts to find loopholes to evade criminal liability, which would then result in future legal arguments and judicial decisions.”
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin praised the Supreme Court’s ruling, saying it “correctly recognizes” that “candidates may not take bribes in exchange for promising to give someone a job.”
“Government corruption is the single biggest threat to our democracy, and my office is committed to rooting it out wherever we find it,” he said in a statement.
