Supreme Court says candidates can be charged with bribery

Candidates can be charged with bribery even if they don’t hold public office, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled in a unanimous decision.

“We find that the bribery statute provides sufficient notice that no person – candidate or incumbent – may accept unauthorized benefits ‘as consideration for the performance of official duties,’” the court’s opinion stated.  “The law plainly states it is no defense that someone in (the) defendant’s position was not yet qualified to act.  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 decision means a 2019 indictment against former Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell, dismissed by a trial court judge in 2021, is reinstated.  Prosecutors allege that in 2018, O’Donnell took $10,000 cash from the state’s cooperating witness, Matt O’Donnell (who is unrelated), in exchange for a promise of legal work if he won a 2018 race for mayor of Bayonne.

O’Donnell’s attorney, Leo Hurley, maintained that the state’s bribery statute applied only to elected officials or party leaders, not candidates.

He had been out of the legislature for almost three years when he mounted an unsuccessful bid for mayor of Bayonne in 2018.  Superior Court Judge Mitzi Galis-Menendez had dismissed O’Donnell’s indictment, but a state appellate court reversed her ruling.

Matt O’Donnell, who headed a now-defunct Morristown law firm representing dozens of public entities, faces prison for overbilling clients and using straw donors to obtain legal work.  At some point in 2016, O’Donnell began cooperating with state prosecutors.

New Jersey’s bribery statute has been in flux since 2012 when U.S. District Court Judge Jose Linares dismissed federal bribery charges against another former assemblyman from Hudson County, Louis Manzo because he was not holding public office.

“The United States District Court’s ruling in Manzo is not a basis to invoke the rule of lenity,” the court determined.  “Because we find 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.”

Last year, Gov. Phil Murphy conditionally vetoed legislation that would have applied bribery laws to candidates, instead seeking to close potential loopholes clearly stating that the status of the individual accepting a bribe could not be a defense.

The case has been remanded back to the Superior Court.

“We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision, which correctly recognizes what we have always said: candidates may not take bribes in exchange for promising to give someone a job,” said Attorney General Matt Platkin.  “Government corruption is the single biggest threat to our democracy, and my office is committed to rooting it out wherever we find it.”

This story was updated at 10:19 with comment from Platkin.