Gov. Murphy and AG Platkin’s Disgraceful Legacy: A Two-Tiered Justice System: One for Murphy’s Pals Spiller and Gill, and One for Everyone Else

Attorney General Matt Platkin will be leaving office soon, but before he goes, we wanted to highlight one last time his brazen hypocrisy and the two-tiered justice system he oversaw for his boss, Gov. Murphy. It’s clear that Platkin has no shame and will say just about anything to try to burnish his record as AG.  The truth — and the New Jersey justice system — be damned. Sadly, New Jersey already had a reputation for political corruption and Murphy and Platkin have made it worse.  What a disgraceful legacy.

Platkin the hypocrite.  You can’t make this stuff up. Here’s Platkin as recently quoted by Politico in its Quote of the Day:

To whoever wasted money to send this fun mailer out about me, let me help you: …  I’m not backing down, and your attacks don’t scare me. I fight corruption because it’s the right thing to do … 

Sunlight had nothing to do with the mailer, but if it were our mailer, we would challenge Platkin over his repeated, on-going hypocrisy and the two-tiered justice system it has enabled. A more truthful description of Platkin’s approach to corruption would be:

I fight corruption because it’s the right thing to do … unless you are one of Gov. Murphy’s political pals. Then I will bury the investigation and let let you off without any consequences

Murphy’s pals Sean Spiller and Brendan Gill. That appears to have happened with two of Murphy’s biggest political pals: former-NJEA President/Montclair mayor/gubernatorial candidate Sean Spiller and current Essex County Commissioner/congressional candidate Brendan Gill.  Under Murphy’s “dear friend” Spiller, the NJEA was Murphy’s biggest political supporter, contributing $20 million to his election runs. Gill managed Murphy’s 2017 campaign for governor and ran the pro-Murphy, NJEA-funded Super PAC, New Direction New Jersey. Now Gill appears to be the Democratic front-runner for Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s old congressional seat.

Both Spiller and Gill have been plausibly alleged to have broken the law by misusing state health benefits.

Allegations against Spiller. In an October 2022 whistleblower lawsuit, Montclair’s CFO alleged that Spiller had misused state health benefits and certified under oath that he worked full-time as mayor at the same time he served as Vice President/President of the NJEA. During his deposition, Spiller pleaded the 5th over 400 times.

Criminal investigation of Spiller was buried. Platkin’s office first subpoenaed Montclair for pay records in December 2022, presumably during the launch of its criminal investigation. Platkin subsequently indicted three Wildwood officials for the same offense, one of whom pleaded guilty and faces a possible three years in prison (per the New Jersey Monitor).  Platkin has evaded accountability by recusing himself from the investigation, which conveniently allowed him to stonewall questions from State Sen. Mike Testa about the apparent double-standard.

Allegations against Gill and no investigation at all. The same appears to be the case with Gill. A Star-Ledger investigation found that, as a county commissioner, Gill accessed $233,417 of state health benefits that were meant for full-time employees only, all while running his own political consulting business (and managing Murphy’s 2017 campaign). There doesn’t appear to be any state investigation of Gill at all. Apparently, Gill is untouchable.

Murphy and Platkin’s disgraceful legacy: a two-tiered system of justice. We previously made the prediction that Spiller and Gill would escape prosecution and suffer no consequences for their actions.  Sadly, that proved correct. Thanks to Murphy and Platkin, New Jersey will continue to live down to its reputation as a politically corrupt state where the well-connected can and will get away with corrupt behavior. You just have to know the right politicians. This will be Murphy and Platkin’s disgraceful legacy to the state.