David Wald

Sources say that the Department of Law and Public Safety is not expected to file criminal charges against Jeff Pillets, a Pulitzer-nominated investigative reporter at The Record, after reviewing a report from the Department of Environmental Protection that Pillets removed public documents.  David Wald, a spokesman for Attorney General Anne Milgram, had no comment on the Pillets matter.  Written statements from Elaine Makatura, a spokesman for DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson, and Pillets, are essentially the same -- except on one point: the DEP says Pillets initially denied having the missing files, while Pillets says he was a model of cooperation.

The following is a written statement from Makatura, send to PolitickerNJ.com yesterday and today:

Sources say that Jeff Pillets, a Pulitzer Prize nominated investigative reporter for The Record, is being investigated by the New Jersey State Police for allegedly swiping some documents from the Department of Environmental Protection.  The alleged theft, which has attracted considerable buzz within political and media circles today, happened while Pillets was reviewing files related to an Open Public Records Act request.  Sources say that Pillets later returned the files and was questioned by law enforcement officials.

At the request of the Attorney General's office, PoliticsNJ.com has removed an advertisement publicizing the Department of Law and Public Safety's "Click it or Ticket" campaign. In an e-mail sent to this website earlier this afternoon, David Wald, a spokesman for Zulima Farber, said: "Please take down the click-it-or-ticket link You know no one here ever asked for or authorized the link. Thanks."

PoliticsNJ.com had run this ad at no charge as a public service announcement. This website acknowledges not being asked to do so by the Attorney General's office, and we apologize for any embarrassment our publicizing of the Click it or Ticket campaign may have caused the Attorney General.

Editor's Note: According to the Attorney General's Office, the state spent $272,000 on radio, billboard and bus advertising for the Click it or Ticket in 2005 -- paid for by a federal grant. There was no advertising budget for this campaign in 2006; radio ads were paid for by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

There were years when political junkies, including the one who writes this column, would stop somewhere late Saturday night to buy the Sunday Star-Ledger, just for the privilege of reading David Wald's column on New Jersey politics. From 1978 to 2000, his column was the epicenter of insider news in this state. Wald was unspinnable, and a low tolerance for the spreading of male cow manure. So respectfully, Wald's fans -- which certainly includes this writer --who have watched him cover six gubernatorial campaigns and fourteen Attorneys General (including three who became gubernatorial candidates) -- have to wonder how Wald, now serving as the spokesman for the state Attorney General, would have written his stories on the embattled Zulima Farber.

Interesting footnote: As Communications Director for U.S. Senator Jon Corzine, Wald worked for Darius Goore, the son of Farber's live-in boyfriend, who was Corzine's Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of communications.

David Wald, the former Star-Ledger political reporter and columnist, is headed to the Department of Law and Public Safety, where he will head up the communications operation for Attorney General Zulima Farber. Wald covered New Jersey politics for the Star-Ledger from 1978 until 2000, when he joined the Jon Corzine for Senate campaign. He spent five years in Corzine's Newark Senate office.