With all the various Christie Administration scandals spewing out, it’s getting more and more difficult to stay up to date and absorb each of them. So far the list of potential wrongdoings fall into the following categories:
- Closing of two Fort Lee toll lanes to the GW Bridge
- Other Port Authority NY & NJ acts to benefit Christie (this is a biggie and includes using the PA as a patronage pit.
- Hoboken – Hurricane Sandy relief funds/Rockefeller Group.
- Hurricane Sandy relief funds used for new private developments in Belleville and New Brunswick.
- 2010 firing of a Hunterdon County prosecutor Ben Barlyn.
- Lt. Gov Guadagno several including alleged threat delivered to Hoboken Mayor Zimmer.
It would be surprising if this list is anywhere near complete. However, the full scope of each of the current identified questionable actions of the Christie Admin has yet to be disclosed. And how or if they directly link to each other beyond being good for team Christie. The Ft. Lee toll lane closings somehow should also fit with “being good for team Christie,” but those that know aren’t talking and the why has so far stumped everyone.
The New Jersey legislative committee tasked with investigating the GW Bridge toll lanes closing issued subpoenas to twenty individuals and organizations with a delivery due date of last Monday. Cooperation and/or compliance has been low. So far. Possibly a good thing for the committee as it’s easier to deal with documents that trickle in instead of a flood of documents. Their review of submitted documents began yesterday and they have found “interesting things.”
The only other thing Assemblyman John Wisnowski said about these documents is:
“I don’t think anybody should be actively trying to determine whether or not there was really a study about traffic,” said Wisniewski. “It’s pretty clear when you look at all the material that that was just, just not real.”
Not sure how many times the “traffic study” has to be debunked — Patrick Foye’s 9/13/13 e-mail that was reported on in December disclosed that and we already have Zero evidence of traffic study from Sen Jay Rockefeller— before it’s accepted as fact. (Christie dead-enders would be expected to keep spouting that nonsense for decades to come.)
For an okay recap, read today’s David Voreacos’ article Bloomberg.com. (IMHO, nothing noteworthy about NJ pols lunching with Christie several years ago.) Interesting that Ft. Lee Mayor Sokolich continues to explain the toll lane closings as political payback for not endorsing Christie’s re-election and still thinks Baroni is a “decent guy.” (Perhaps Bill Stepien was right about Sokolich.)
Voreacos repeats the claim that NJ Pension funds invested in the Hudson Lights project that was originally reported in PolitickerNJ but provides no link to that or any other source. The PolitickerNJ report wasn’t strong enough to support the claim made. It was, however, interesting enough for further investigative journalism.
Will update with drips that drop in the coming days, but only the drips directly related to the toll lane closings. Will use the comments for other interesting drips.
[Update] Mayor Sokolich Has Recovered Memories
Governor Christie’s campaign orchestrated an extensive operation over two years that involved gifts to Fort Lee — including Port Authority funded shuttle buses, snow plowing, pothole repair and emergency radios — to convince the borough’s mayor to offer his endorsement of the governor during his reelection campaign, Mayor Mark Sokolich said in his most extensive comments to date on the George Washington Bridge scandal.
When Sokolich did not offer his endorsement, he says he was punished by paralyzing traffic jams at the bridge that were ordered by Christie’s appointees at the Port Authority during five days last September.
Why didn’t he say so earlier?
[Update #2]
NJ Committee Issues 18 More Subpoenas
Interesting that Bill Baroni and Philip Kwon (both Christie PA appointees) were skipped over in the subpoenas issued a few weeks ago but are included in this batch.
Panel votes to compel insiders to produce documents.
Relates to Bill Stepien and Bridget Kelly’s refusal to produce documents based on assertion of Fifth Amendment rights.
Panel looking into whether Governor flew in helicopter over Fort Lee.
[Update #3] The plot thickens.
Another Christie childhood friend witnessed traffic surge
From Steve Kornacki — and it’s a good one that adds to how the lane closures could have been so well managed for so many days.
A Port Authority police officer with personal ties to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was at the George Washington Bridge when access lanes were closed last September and personally drove David Wildstein, the Christie appointee who supervised the closings, on a tour of the area as traffic brought it to a standstill.
Documents submitted to a New Jersey legislative committee by Wildstein also show that the officer, Lieutenant Thomas “Chip” Michaels, appears to have sent periodic text messages to Wildstein updating him on the effects of the lane closures and their crippling impact on the town of Fort Lee. In one message, on the first day of the lane closures, Michaels told Wildstein he might have an idea to “make this better.” It is not clear what he meant.
Michaels isn’t some random PA officer that Wildstein enlisted for the conspiracy, but
In recent years, he coached Christie’s son at little league hockey. Michael’s brother, Jeffrey Michaels is among the most powerful Republicans in New Jersey politics – a lobbyist whose practice has soared in value during the Christie years and who has donated heavily to pro-Christie organizations.
Michaels previously got a mention in a 2010 NJ.com profile of Gov. Elect Christie
[Update #4]
GWB scandal: Newly uncensored messages under review by NJ lawmakers
The legislative panel investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures now possesses un-redacted documents from a key witness [Wildstein], and lawmakers are working to make those once-secret details part of their public records.
Stay tuned.
[Update #5] 9/9/13 text messages between Chip Michaels and Ft. Lee police chief Short version: Michaels suggests rerouting traffic to ease gridlock. Police Chief responds — give us our f**king bridge lanes back.