FLAME ON!:

Prosecutors' Torricelli memo unsealed: Report to judge calls senator's donor helpful but unlikely to persuade a jury (JOHN P. MARTIN, September 27, 2002, Newark Star-Ledger)

A federal judge yesterday released a confidential government memo that offers few new details about the aborted federal probe of U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli but still adds fuel to what is already one of the nation's most heated elections.

In the memo, written in May, federal prosecutors said they had gathered "substantial" evidence to corroborate some claims by David Chang, the Bergen County entrepreneur who said he gave Torricelli tens of thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise for political favors.

According to the memo, the evidence included documents and accounts from shop vendors who backed Chang's contention that he bought appliances, jewelry and other items that Chang said were for the New Jersey Democrat.

But the memo included no names or specific details in connection with the Torricelli allegations. And while investigators called Chang "credible in most material respects," they noted that his erratic behavior and contradictory statements weakened his credibility so much that they decided they could not win a conviction against the senator.

This election pretty much comes down to whether New Jerseyans respect themselves and on that topic we're not sanguine. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 27, 2002 7:50 PM