Barnegat Mayor Used Official Email For Jan. 6 Bus Trip

BARNEGAT, NJ — Current Barnegat Mayor Alfonso Cirulli used his township email to organize a bus trip to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a report by the Asbury Park Press.

Then Barnegat's deputy mayor, said that he organized the trip using iPad that had his township email and he was reimbursed by the county Republican Club, according to APP.

Nonpartisan government watchdog group American Oversight submitted an Open Public Records Request to Barnegat seeking copies of Cirulli's emails that used phrases like "stop the steal," "Capitol" and "Save America" from Jan. 1 through Jan. 15, 2021.

"He should not be using his township email, because it was not township business," Richard Gutman, a retired attorney who specialized in New Jersey's Open Public Records Act, told the publication. "It was his personal support of a presidential campaign, Trump's campaign, and he shouldn't be using his township email for personal political purposes. They're not part of his duties as mayor. It was a misuse of township email."

Gutman discovered the use of the email while investigating New Jersey politicians who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Gutman told APP he was concerned not only about Cirulli's use of official email, but his political activity as well.

"I'm… concerned that a public official in New Jersey gave support to... an effort to overturn the presidential election," he told the publication.

Cirulli told the publication that he organized the trip because he was a supporter of President Donald Trump and believed that President Joe Biden's election was fraudulent.

"There's nothing that I did that was illegal or subversive to the country," he told APP. "So maybe in the future, I just won't use township stuff, period."

Cirulli also said to the publication that he was unaware of the violence occurring at the Capitol that day and was nowhere near it.

Cirulli previously came under fire in 2019 for his stance against LGBTQ teaching in New Jersey's schools. Read More: Barnegat Mayor Reportedly Rips Teaching LGBTQ History In Schools

American Oversight is investigating the matter as part of a larger investigation involving government officials around the country who took part in the Jan. 6 rally, according to their website.

"[Trump's] incendiary rhetoric had the support of multiple members of state and local governments, and the public deserves answers about their participation in or support for what amounted to a seditious attempt to overthrow the U.S. government," American Oversight said on their website.

Read the full report at the Asbury Park Press.