Appearing this morning before the Select Oversight Committee, New Jersey Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative Affairs Justin Braz said he was deeply sorry for what his friend Katie Brennan endured.

He noted that he was not working for the Murphy Campaign in April of 2017, when he received a call from Brennan, and subsequently heard her tell him and a second friend at Brennan’s apartment that Al Alvarez had assaulted her.

“I promised her whatever she needed,” said Braz, who said Brennan told him she wanted to handle it in her own way. “I told her, I’m here for you. At that time, I was working for Assemblyman Gary Schaer as his chief of staff.”

Later, Braz joined the campaign (charging up labor) and then the transition team at which time Brennan said the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office was on the verge of filing charges and arresting him at any day. Without identifying the alleged victim, Braz said he told Raj Parikh (chief counsel to the transition committee) that  Alvarez – who was working on the transition team at the time – was facing a sexual assault charge.

Then Braz told Chief of Staff-to-be Pete Cammarano the next day and told him what he told Parikh.

Subsequent to those conversations, Braz told Brennan he had told them in concert with her wishes, then she called him later that evening and told him the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office would not be filing charges against Alvarez.

In his testimony, Braz – with former Attorney General Chris Porrino and former Comptroller Matt Boxer at his elbows in the roles of counsel – told the committee that he believed Brennan. Asked if Parikh or Cammarano ever told him what they were going to do once he told them about Alvarez, he said, “No, they did not.”