The Newark Star Ledger has a devastating investigative piece on crass exploitation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that the Democrat Party doesn’t want you to know about. In “Governor’s office steered terror aid: Records contradict official claims over how Democratic towns got lion’s share of grants,” Rick Hepp reports:

Despite its public statements, the office of acting Democratic Gov. Richard Codey played a key role in doling out millions of dollars in state homeland security grants this year to legislative districts controlled by his party, a review of government documents shows.

A series of internal letters, memos and e-mails messages, obtained under the Open Public Records Act, makes it clear that decisions on which towns got grants have been influenced by the governor’s office from the time the program was established in 2002 under Gov. James E. McGreevey.

The documents contradict repeated claims by Codey’s spokespeople that the program was handled by the state Attorney General’s Office without political influence.

A May 12 e-mail message from the coordinator of the grant program in the Attorney General’s Office to a legislative staffer from Gloucester County seeking a grant update explained who was in charge.

“I’ve asked the Gov.’s Office to advise if anything changed in terms of Franklin Twp. receiving funding,” Steven Talpas wrote to the aide of Democratic Sen. Fred Madden, who represents Franklin Township. “Our office does not make the funding determination for this grant program.”

Among hundreds of pages of other documents obtained by The Star-Ledger was a memo from a top administrator in the Attorney General’s Office who describes the program as “Christmas Tree funding” — a term long used in Trenton to describe grants given along party lines to loyal and politically connected lawmakers for use on pet projects in home districts.

Other letters and e-mail messages show Talpas conferring with the governor’s office on the distribution of the grants and, at one point in 2003, asking a McGreevey staffer when the grant decisions would be made.

The homeland security grants sparked controversy in July when The Star-Ledger reported that 93 percent of the $23 million handed out since 2002 had gone to districts controlled by Democrats.

Read the whole thing.

So, when will we hear from all those indignant Dems so quick to attack the GOP for taking advantage of 9/11?

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