Christie leaves Cowboys tickets off his disclosure form

On his latest financial-disclosure form, Gov. Christie does not list as gifts the luxury-box tickets to Dallas Cowboys games he received last football season from team owner Jerry Jones.

The governor's disclosure form is dated May 15 - a day after New Jersey's acting attorney general issued an opinion that said the state's requirements for disclosing gifts could be interpreted to apply only to remuneration received in exchange for a service, such as for a speaking engagement.

The financial-disclosure form, which Christie files annually, indicates that he and his wife, Mary Pat, earned at least $600,000 in income last year - most of it from her job as a managing director at the Wall Street investment firm Angelo Gordon.

She recently resigned from the firm, as Christie continues to consider a run for president in 2016.

In his opinion, acting Attorney General John Hoffman said the executive order, which compels disclosure of "gifts and other gratuities (cash or noncash)," limits "the disclosure of gifts to those that have the character of a gratuity."

He cited Webster's dictionary, defining gratuity as "something given voluntarily or over and above what is due usually in return for or anticipation of some service."

A law professor who specializes in government ethics said the opinion had "tortured rationales."

Hoffman's opinion "is not supported by the definition of gift or the intent of the disclosure requirement," said Paula Franzese of Seton Hall University School of Law.

"It seems that from reading the opinion, there was a conclusion that the office wanted to reach," Franzese said. "That conclusion was clearly that Christie is not obligated to report the gifts he has received."

Asked for comment, Leland Moore, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said the opinion "provided at the request of the State Ethics Commission speaks for itself."

Kevin Roberts, a Christie spokesman, said the governor's disclosure statement "meets all disclosure requirements by the State Ethics Commission" under the executive order.

A Cowboys fan, Christie made a splash on national television last season while celebrating with Jones in a luxury box.

The governor's office disclosed in January that Jones had provided Christie with tickets to three Cowboys games, as well as a private plane ride for his family to one of the games, at no cost to taxpayers.

Two of the games occurred in 2014, while the third - the one involving the plane ride - took place in early January of this year.

The income and gift disclosure sections of the report cover 2014.

Christie's office noted a 2010 executive order, versions of which were signed by previous governors, allowing the governor to "accept gifts, favors, services, gratuities, meals, lodging or travel expenses from relatives or personal friends that are paid for with personal funds."

The Cowboys are part-owners of a company that won a contract with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to operate the observation deck at One World Trade Center.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office issued the bistate agency a subpoena seeking records related to the contract, according to an April Port Authority bond prospectus.

That business deal was cited in a complaint a liberal group said it filed in January with the State Ethics Commission, arguing that Jones did not have a solely personal relationship with Christie.

The ethics commission did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday on the status of the complaint by the American Democracy Legal Fund, or why it had asked for an opinion from Hoffman.

An affiliated group, American Bridge, obtained records in January that showed that Christie had received more than 1,100 gifts since he took office in 2010.

They included Bruce Springsteen CDs, books from politicians, T-shirts, and a bottle of wine.

Christie did not disclose those gifts on prior financial-disclosure forms. The executive order says the governor and other public officials in the executive branch aren't required to disclose cash gifts of less than $100 or noncash gifts worth less than $200.

While Hoffman's opinion interpreted the executive order as conflating gifts with gratuities, an appendix to the order, titled "Code of Conduct for the Governor," lists them separately, along with meals, lodging, favors, and so on.

It says the governor "shall be subject to the Financial Disclosure requirements established by Executive Order."