David Wildstein, the former Port Authority honcho who was thrown under the bus this morning during Governor Chris Christie’s press conference, has been found in contempt of the New Jersey assembly for refusing to answer simple questions about his email account and former employment. It’s a misdemeanor offense, and it’s puzzling because he does have a right against self-incrimination. But his lawyer advised him to not answer any questions whatsoever, even if honest answers were highly unlikely to pertain to any criminal activity.
Needless to say, this doesn’t look good. This is not the kind of cooperation with the investigation that Gov. Chris Christie promised in his press conference. It seems very probable that Christie knew that Wildstein would plead the fifth and, in fact, was depending on it when he made his blanket denials of fore- or after-knowledge of the criminal conspiracy that was hatched in his own office.
I am fairly certain that the Chris Christie press conference was one the worst displays of bald-faced lying that any of us have witnessed since at least the time that Anthony Weiner claimed that his Twitter account was hacked. Bold and confident lying can be convincing when you are unwilling to believe that someone could be so dishonest, but I am not unwilling to believe that Christie is dishonest, and I was utterly unconvinced of his innocence. I think that almost every word out of his mouth was a lie.
And I think it will all start to unravel very soon.
