Authorities are laying out their case against the 44 mayors, other public officials and rabbisarrested on corruption charges in New Jersey today and acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra just made a very blunt allegation:

"The politicians willingly put themselves up for sale," Marra said. "Corruption was a way of life" for them and they "existed in an ethics free zone."

They're accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes and laundering millions.

There's a webast of the prosecutors' news conference here.

Update at 4 p.m. ET. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston sums up the story in this report:

Update at 1:15 p.m. ET: The news conference just ended.

Update at 1:10 p.m. ET: According to the AP, "one of the suspects is accused of enticing people to give up a kidney for $10,000 and reselling for $160,000."

Update at 1:05 p.m. ET. Copies of some of criminal complaints are posted here.

Update at 1 p.m. ET: Prosecutors say the rabbis were critical to the laundering of the bribes that the politicians received. They allegedly helped turn turn bank checks into cash. As the Associated Press puts it, five rabbis allegedly "acted as crime bosses to launder money in Deal, Brooklyn, Israel and Switzerland."