Federal Prosecutor Resigns After $46K Loan from Boss Is Revealed

It may have been Michele Brown's bad luck that her former boss decided to run as a Republican candidate for New Jersey state governor.

But the federal prosecutor resigned from her job today as acting first assistant U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, saying that it had been an honor and a privilege to work there and she did not want to be a "distraction" for the office, reports the Star-Ledger. She had worked there for 18 years.

Her resignation, which is effective immediately, comes barely more than a week after a $46,000 loan from her ex-boss, former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, hit the headlines.

Brown was the No. 4 attorney in the office when Christie made the loan in 2007, the Associated Press notes. She has been making $500-a-month payments at a 5.5-percent interest rate that will retire the principal balance in 2017, according to Christie.

The loan was controversial both because Christie initially omitted it on campaign finance forms, which he later amended, and because of what some observers see as a clear conflict of interest, now that he is running for governor. Christie, Brown, and their respective spouses are neighbors in the upscale suburb of Mendham, on the distant outskirts of New York City.

Christie is in the process of amending his income tax forms to include the $420 in interest that Brown has paid him, which he also describes as an inadvertent omission.