George LeBlanc, the budget director for the state Senate Democrats, took the stand today and described a 2003 meeting with former state Sen. Wayne Bryant (D., Camden) in which Bryant requested that $2.3 million be inserted into the state budget for the School of Osteopathic Medicine.
At the time, Bryant didn't mention that he had been hired at the school a few months earlier, LeBlanc testified.
Bryant has been charged in federal court with accepting that job as a bribe in exchange for using his influence as chair of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. His trial entered its third week this morning, but the court broke around 1:30 for the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah and won't reconvene until Thursday.
Bryant's co-defendant, R. Michael Gallagher, was the school's dean. He has been charged with rigging Bryant's "low-show" job, for which he worked just one morning each week, despite being paid as if he worked three days a week.
The $2.3 million was part of the $3.1 million prosecutors say Bryant steered to the school in his first year of employment.
LeBlanc was asked who was responsible for getting that money to the school.
"Based on the meeting ... I would say Sen. Bryant was responsible," LeBlanc said.
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