Cipel and McGreevey Miles Apart on the Nature of Their 'Affair'

Golan Cipel

NEW YORK
The boxing match between former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey and his alleged gay Israeli lover has gone another round.

Golan Cipel has come out swinging after McGreevey gave his side of their alleged sexual relationship in his new memoir, The Confession.

"All of the encounters are twisted," insisted Cipel, who maintains that he's not gay and that McGreevey sexually assaulted him. "He took the cases I have against him, and completely twisted and changed the facts."

The counterpunching between the two men is the latest twist in a public battle that has involved a lawsuit and threats -- and which brought McGreevey down in 2004 when, under intense public scrutiny, he publicly admitted that he was gay.

McGreevey's book details the rise and fall of a modern American politician -- one who became governor of New Jersey in his 40s, only to resign two years later mired in scandal.

In his mea culpa, McGreevey describes occasional, furtive gay experiences, including trysts outside the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in Washington when he was a law student at Georgetown University in the late 1970s.

McGreevey was able to keep those trysts private, but his supposed relationship with Cipel became much more public.

Soon after McGreevey's August 2004 speech, Cipel, then 35, returned to Israel.

"I wanted to be with my family. My parents' apartment was surrounded by journalists. I went back to Israel to manage my situation," he said in a phone interview.

He said that he was devastated emotionally: "It was a very difficult time."

Cipel had trouble finding work at first, but in the two years since, he noted that he has been able to put his life back together.

Reticent to talk about his private life, Cipel said that he lives on his own and works as a consultant, but did not elaborate further. He also mentioned that he's not married or dating anyone.

McGreevey, who was married at the time but has since divorced and now has a male partner, wrote that he and Cipel had the kind of chemistry that so many single people seek.

McGreevey said he met Cipel in Israel back in 2000, when he was mayor of Woodbridge, N.J., during a mission sponsored by New Jersey's MetroWest Federation. He claims the two had an immediate bond.

"I can't say I ever had a more electrifying first meeting," he wrote in his book.

McGreevey invited Cipel, who had a knowledge of the U.S. Jewish community from his time as a staffer in New York's Israeli Consulate in the mid-1990s, to work on his gubernatorial campaign.

Soon after taking office in 2002, McGreevey gave Cipel a job. The media portrayed Cipel as an unqualified "security czar," implying that New Jersey needed someone with more experience on that matter in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Articles also detailed that Cipel's qualifications for any type of security position were exaggerated.

Both men said that while Cipel gave advice on security to McGreevey, his duties were far more varied.

Cipel resigned his position with the McGreevey government in August 2002, but continued to serve as an unofficial liaison to the Jewish community.

Beyond that, the two men seemingly don't agree on anything.

McGreevey, who now works for a New Jersey law firm, describes sexual encounters with Cipel, including one in the McGreevey family condominium while his second wife was in the hospital caring for their newborn daughter.

Cipel has maintained that the depictions are untrue. He said McGreevey wrestled him onto a bed on one occasion and performed a sexual act in front of him on others, without his consent.

But he never filed a threatened lawsuit against the former governor, on the advice of friends and family, he added.

"The reason I'm speaking now is because he's not gone," said Cipel, "and now I have to confront him and tell the truth."