Senator Joseph Cryan apparently robbed charity money for campaign

Senator Joseph Cryan’s campaign organization accepted two illegal contributions from the McNany Charitable Foundation, the most recent on July 31, 2019 and one before that on April 12, 2016.

The McNany Charitable Foundation was created in 2015 by Edward McNany, a retired Springfield police sergeant detective; Michael McNany, a retired Springfield police lieutenant; and their sister, Rita M. McNany, the Parking Services Manager for the City of Summit.

The McNany Charitable Foundation funneled tax-free charitable funds to various police unions, including Police Benevolent Association groups representing officers employed by the Springfield and Summit police departments.

Last year, the New Jersey State Police Benevolent Association endorsed Republican Donald Trump for re-election as president and it is supporting Cryan in his hotly-contested 2021 Democratic primary.

The McNany Charitable Foundation also appears to have funneled tax-free charitable funds to various police unions that have sought to preserve immunity laws, which have been blamed for allowing corrupt law enforcement officers to escape justice in cases where unarmed citizens have been brutalized or killed while in custody.

Years ago, Cryan’s campaign repeatedly accepted illegal payments from both the Center for Hope Hospice and Palliative Care and the Boys & Girls Club of Union County. Within weeks, those two groups were awarded grants from the Union Township Committee, whose members essentially served at Cryan’s pleasure due to corrupt ballot laws in New Jersey.

The New York Times reported that “Christie was looking into political donations received by Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, a Democrat from Union County, who also is chairman of the State Democratic Committee.”

“The contributions, which totaled more than $3,000, were given to Mr. Cryan by two nonprofit groups — the Boys and Girls Clubs of Union County and a residential hospice called Center for Hope. The organizations have received about $1.5 million in special grants,” said a New York Times story published on March 28, 2007. “Because the groups are nonprofit agencies, the contributions would constitute a violation of federal tax laws.”

A contemporaneous report published by the Star-Ledger now appears online with references to Cryan’s misdeeds removed from the article, as if it was sanitized.

The FBI investigated those criminal contributions, but instead of prosecuting Cryan and the charities that gave him money, there’s speculation that then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie cut a deal with the political boss.

Did Democrat Joseph Cryan cut a 2009 deal to make Republican Chris Christie the governor in order to save his own skin?

As the Democratic State Committee chairman at the time, Cryan may have enabled his contributors to avoid jail time and fines in exchange for a secret agreement to shave votes off of Gov. Jon Corzine’s margin of victory in Democratic strongholds.

Cryan was uniquely positioned to backpedal voter turnout operations in New Jersey, although there is no independent confirmation that he conspired with Christie to quash the criminal investigation into his unlawful money. For example, Corzine won Union County by 12,098 votes, while Barack Obama won the presidential election one year earlier by 62,649 ballots.

The McNany Charitable Foundation Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization with the employer identification number (EIN) 47-3559551. Donations to the foundation are tax-deductible, but like all charities of this kind, using tax-free cash like that for political expenditures is strictly prohibited by law and IRS regulations.