The head of the embattled state Office of Public Integrity and Accountability is leaving at the end of this week and will be replaced by Assistant Attorney General Eric Gibson, a former federal prosecutor who was brought on eleven months ago to supervise the state’s prosecution of Democratic powerbroker George E. Norcross.
Drew Skinner is bailing with four months left in the Murphy administration after just eighteen months in office – and a string of significant losses. He has not publicly announced his next job.
Gibson now takes the helm in what will likely be a short-term gig. The winner of the upcoming governor’s race could dismantle and reconstitute the beleaguered office, which has faced criticism for grievous mistakes, allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, and questions about its ability to bring major cases to trial and secure convictions.
A former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Gibson was brought in last October to supervise the Norcross prosecution. Four months later, Superior Court Judge Peter Warshaw dismissed the charges in the 112-page indictment against Norcross and others.
Gibson was admitted to the New Jersey Bar in February 2022, but did not take the bar exam. Instead, he was granted a waiver.
Skinner replaced Thomas Eicher, who formed the office in 2018 and retired in March 2024.
Harsh criticisms of the OPIA – along with Eicher, deputy director Anthony Picione, and the number three lawyer, Peter W. Lee, also departed – Platkin went outside the OPIA structure to recruit Skinner, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Skinner had spent nearly nine years as a federal prosecutor and was co-chief of the Violent and Organized Crime Unit. He previously served in the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force.
“I am excited that Eric Gibson, a longtime career corruption prosecutor at the state and federal level, will take over OPIA’s leadership,” said Attorney General Matt Platkin. “Eric has shown he will lead with the independence, fortitude, and discipline necessary to tackle corruption in New Jersey and to continue the office’s growth.”
Michael Critchley, Norcross’ attorney and one of the state’s top lawyers, said Skinner’s departure doesn’t shock him.
“It’s no surprise that people at the OPIA would be looking for the exits given its record of failure under Matt Platkin. Unfortunately, where public service can and should be a positive part of one’s resume, how this office has operated and its open partisanship makes working at the OPIA a stain on one’s resume,” stated Critchley. “We hope the next governor will appoint an AG that will be committed to pursues justifiable prosecutions and stops being focused on punishing political opponents.”
Gibson spent eleven years as an Assistant Philadelphia District Attorney and nearly seventeen years with the Department of Justice, where he spent six years as the deputy chief of the Corruption and Civil Rights section.
He successfully prosecuted former Rep. Ozzie Myers, who had gone to prison in the 1980s after his conviction in the Abscam trial, on election fraud charges. Myers admitted his role in a ballot-stuffing scheme and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He won a conviction against a Philadelphia congressman, Chaka Fattah, on corruption charges, and against Philadelphia Democratic political consultant Kenneth Smukler on federal campaign finance violations.
In 2022, Gibson prosecuted Philadelphia City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson on bribery charges. Defense attorneys accused the government of prosecutorial overreach and argued that Gibson’s case lacked evidence, was based on inference, and “cherry-picked” facts to fit their narrative. Jurors deliberated for less than four hours before acquitting Johnson.
He left the U.S. Attorney’s office two months later and began a two-year stint as chair of the Internal Investigations and White Collar Defense practice at Post & Schell, a Philadelphia law firm.
