A Sewer of Corruption

The corruption of the McGreevey administration is turning out to be even worse than I first thought:

Jim McGreevey's former gay lover made a desperate cash-for-silence demand just minutes before the New Jersey governor told the world he was homosexual, sources said yesterday.
Less than a half hour before McGreevey's stunning announcement that he had cheated on his wife with a man and would step down in November, Golan Cipel asked the governor's lawyers for $2 million - down from a previous request for $5 million, the administration sources said.
Cipel also wanted the administration to okay a proposed Touro College medical school in New Jersey, they said. In exchange, the Israeli national said he would not file a sex-harassment suit against McGreevey, the sources said.

..."It was the first anyone had heard of Touro" as part of an alleged shakedown, said one source, who asked not to be identified. McGreevey's lawyers rejected the bid.
Cipel's lawyer, Allen Lowy, said Friday that there was no shakedown, that Lowy was the victim of sexual advances by McGreevey and that the governor had offered hush money for Cipel to go away.
But yesterday, Lowy apparently went a step further. He told The New York Times that Cipel is heterosexual and did not have an affair with McGreevey, the paper reported today.

If there's anything shady happening in New Jersey, who is the one man who will have his greasy fingers in the pie? I'll give you one guess:

Officials couldn't be reached at Touro, a New York law school whose board members include real-estate developer Charles Kushner, a top McGreevey fund-raiser charged on July 13 with witness-tampering.
Touro had hired Rosemont Associates, the firm of former Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.), last December to be an adviser on the medical school proposal, said Sean Jackson, a top aide to the former lawmaker.
But the alleged Cipel shakedown involving the school came as a shock, he said, adding that he had "no knowledge of any involvement" Cipel had with Touro or the project, or how such a thing would have come up with the McGreevey camp.
He said Torricelli has "no memory whatsoever" of ever meeting Cipel or dealing with him in any way.
Torricelli was forced from his reelection bid in 2002 amid an ethics scandal.

The Torch was involved somehow? I'm shocked I tell you, shocked.

Update: Cipel allegedly asked for $50 million and money for a med school:


TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - The man who claims Gov. James E. McGreevey sexually harassed him was pushing for a cash settlement of up to $50 million before the governor decided to announce that he was gay and had an extramarital affair, sources told The Associated Press.
Golan Cipel's demands also included a last-minute push to have McGreevey's administration approve development plans for a private medical college in the state, two senior members of the administration said Saturday. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity.
McGreevey's lawyer refused to negotiate, one of the sources said, and rejected repeated offers to pay cash to avoid a lawsuit that would detail the governor's relationship with Cipel, a former campaign aide whose appointment as a homeland security adviser with little experience provoked a major political controversy for the governor.
Cipel's lawyer first contacted McGreevey on July 23, asking for $50 million, one of the administration sources said. More offers were made, and the price dropped. Each time McGreevey's lawyer refused to agree and did not discuss the issue further, the source said.