On Monday afternoon, George Norcross was sitting alone in the front row of the hall in Trenton, N.J., where Mr. Platkin announced the indictment. He said he had no immediate comment but added, “I will later.”
The charges reinforce New Jersey’s already tarnished reputation for political corruption. The state’s senior senator, Robert Menendez, is his sixth week of trial, charged by federal prosecutors with accepting cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz in exchange for his willingness to use his political clout to dole out favors for allies.
Mr. Norcross, an insurance executive who served on the Democratic National Committee, was for decades the most powerful unelected political official in New Jersey. He was instrumental in selecting governors, steering legislation and influencing state policy.
About a year ago, Mr. Norcross suggested he was stepping back from politics after a series of embarrassing legislative defeats. His public statements coincided with news reports that the attorney general’s office had revived its investigation into more than a billion dollars in tax breaks awarded to South Jersey companies close to Mr. Norcross under legislation backed by former Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican.
During his first term, Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, railed against that tax incentive program, and sparred openly with Mr. Norcross — tension that defined much of his first two years in office. Mr. Platkin was Mr. Murphy’s chief counsel when the state began investigating the program, the Economic Opportunity Act of 2013, and was later tapped as attorney general.
