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George Washington Bridge Probe Finds No Direct Tie To Christie

George Washington Bridge Probe Finds No Direct Tie To Christie

By Shawn Boburg, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) (TNS)

HACKENSACK, N.J. _ A report summarizing a yearlong investigation by the legislative panel examining the George Washington Bridge lane closures found no evidence of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s involvement but concluded that two of his allies acted “with perceived immunity” when they gridlocked Fort Lee’s streets for apparently political reasons.

The 136-report, drawing off sworn testimony, private interviews and thousands of subpoenaed documents, also highlights the unsuccessful efforts by a now-shuttered arm of Christie’s office to court the Fort Lee mayor’s endorsement, finding that the closures were “motivated in part by political considerations.”

The report states there is “no conclusive evidence” as to whether the governor “was or was not” aware of the lane closures or involved in directing them. But it catalogs several unanswered questions surrounding the scandal and cites a lack of cooperation from several key players who invoked their Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination.

Like the report commissioned by Christie’s office, it found that the “principal actors” in the scandal were former Port Authority executive David Wildstein and Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly. But it also found that Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni and former Christie campaign manager Bill Stepien share some responsibility because they were aware of the lane closures as they were happening and were aware of the public safety consequences.

Even if Kelly and Wildstein acted alone, the report states, “they did so with perceived impunity and in the environment, both in the (governor’s office) and the Port Authority, in which they felt empowered to act as they did, with little regard for public safety risks or the steadily mounting public frustrations.”

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Rabbi Is New Mystery Focus Of Chris Christie Team In Bridge Mess

Rabbi Is New Mystery Focus Of Chris Christie Team In Bridge Mess

By Joseph Tanfani, Tribune Washington Bureau

TRENTON, N.J. — In the mysterious political grudge-fest that spawned the George Washington Bridge traffic pileup, a new object of ire has emerged: a New Jersey rabbi.

A newly released version of a text exchange between David Wildstein and Bridget Anne Kelly, two key figures in the bridge scandal, shows them exchanging barbed jokes about Rabbi Mendy Carlebach of the Chabad of North and South Brunswick — and chaplain to the Police Department at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the bridges.

Wildstein, appointed to a Port Authority post by Gov. Chris Christie, texted a picture of Carlebach posing with House Speaker John Boehner to Kelly, then working as Christie’s deputy chief of staff.

“And he has officially pissed me off,” Wildstein wrote, though what the rabbi did to earn that anger isn’t spelled out.

“We cannot cause traffic problems in front of his house, can we?” Kelly wrote.

“Flights to Tel Aviv all mysteriously delayed,” said Wildstein. (The Port Authority also controls the region’s airports.)

Carlebach, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has been around Republican politics for years, and has been a supporter of Christie’s. He gave the invocation at the 2004 Republican convention and also attended the last one, in Tampa, Fla., according to Chabad websites. Christie appointed him to a New Jersey Israel Commission. And Christie, in response to appeals from Carlebach and other rabbis at his annual Hanukkah party, allowed menorahs in state prisons.

Carlebach told reporters that he has no idea what spawned the grudge. “None of it makes any sense,” he told the Record of New Jersey.

The version released Thursday by a state legislative committee investigating the bridge incident contains some previously redacted details — though it does not explain the decision to redirect traffic leading to the bridge for four days in September, creating epic traffic pileups in Fort Lee.

As the controversy was gathering steam, and Patrick Foye, the New York-appointed chairman of the authority, was criticizing the lane closures, Wildstein got an obscenity-punctuated text from Bill Stepien, Christie’s campaign manager: “Who does he think he is, Capt. America?”

“Welcome to our world,” Wildstein replied.

The emails include urgent messages from the mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, asking Port Authority officials whether the lane closures were directed against him as political payback for his decision not to endorse Christie.

This version shows that Kelly initiated a snarky text exchange with Wildstein during the traffic jam: “I feel badly about the kids. I guess,” she wrote.

“They are the children of Buono voters,” Wildstein replied, referring to Barbara Buono, who at the time was Christie’s Democratic opponent.

Kelly and Stepien have refused to provide documents to the legislative committee, citing their constitutional rights against self-incrimination. A judge has set a March 11 hearing in the case.

Bob Jagendorf via Flickr.com

Ex-Christie Aide Redacted Senator’s Name From Text Message

Ex-Christie Aide Redacted Senator’s Name From Text Message

By Melissa Hayes and Michael Phillis, The Record (Hackensack, NJ)

TRENTON, N.J. — A former top aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey redacted the name of a Republican state senator when he submitted hundreds of pages of communication to a legislative committee charged with probing the lane-closing scandal at the George Washington Bridge.

David Wildstein, who resigned from his position as director of interstate capital projects at the Port Authority, blacked out a text message mentioning state Sen. Kevin O’Toole, R-Cedar Grove.

The text, from Wildstein to Bill Baroni, the Port Authority’s former deputy executive director who was also appointed by Christie, was sent at 11:59 a.m. on Nov. 25. It reads, “O’Toole statement ready.” The Record obtained documents Wednesday that included the text messages without redaction. The timing of the message is key because it came just after Baroni spoke with the Assembly Transportation Committee about the lane closures.

O’Toole is one of four Republicans on a 12-member New Jersey Select Committee on Investigation that was formed in January to look into the lane closures. The panel’s Democratic leaders, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg and Assemblyman John Wisniewski, have said O’Toole might be called to answer questions about what he knew. Republicans on the committee stood by O’Toole, saying there is no evidence he did anything wrong.

O’Toole has not responded to requests for comment. Wildstein’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

“Kevin is very bright and is very attentive to the necessity of being aboveboard, so I’m certainly willing to give him the benefit of the doubt,” said Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris, a member of the committee. “If he feels he can be an objective participant in this, I have no reason to believe otherwise.”

O’Toole’s name also came up in another document handed over by Wildstein, an email, but was not redacted in that instance.

The redaction of the text message, however, is raising additional questions, Wisniewski said, adding that he hoped O’Toole would clarify their content for the committee.

“We hope that he would provide the committee with any information,” Wisniewski said, adding that he was prepared to work with O’Toole. “Nobody was making an issue of his position on the committee. There are a series of questions that people have raised.”

The text was sent moments after Baroni told the Assembly Transportation Committee that the lane closures that tied up traffic for more than four days were part of a traffic study to determine whether Fort Lee needed three dedicated toll plaza lanes to access the bridge. Baroni had reached out to Wildstein seeking feedback about his testimony from officials in Trenton.

O’Toole released a statement to the media hours later attacking the Democrats who led the November meeting and echoing points Baroni made in his testimony.

“Why was a sweetheart deal done that gave Fort Lee three lanes and a dedicated exit,” O’Toole asked in his statement. “Who thought this was fair? If we are going to be honest with the citizens of New Jersey then let’s be honest, this certainly isn’t it.”

Weinberg said the committee could call O’Toole to answer questions about what he knew about Baroni’s testimony, which used the purported traffic study to explain the lane closures that were carried out by Wildstein and ordered by a former deputy chief of staff to Christie apparently as political retribution against the Fort Lee mayor for failing to endorse the governor’s re-election bid last year.

O’Toole also submitted an opinion piece to The Record, which was published the next day and again attacked Democrats and questioned the need for dedicated Fort Lee lanes.

“The chairman of that committee and his fellow Democrats conducted this hearing to repeatedly hammer one of Christie’s appointments to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, in an attempt to score political points against the governor,” O’Toole wrote. “They ignored facts and refused to ask why the majority of New Jersey commuters must suffer.”

The documents Wildstein provided in response to a legislative subpoena were made public by the committee investigating the lane closures last month. Wildstein included his text messages with Baroni on Nov. 25. One line is blacked out.

Baroni did not turn over text messages in response to the initial legislative subpoena.

But he has provided additional documents as part of a new subpoena, including the text messages he exchanged with Wildstein the day he appeared before the Assembly panel.

In Baroni’s document, it is clear that the line redacted in Wildstein’s submission is the reference to O’Toole.

Wildstein’s documents include another reference to O’Toole. In an email to Michael Drewniak, Christie’s press secretary, on Dec. 5 Wildstein writes, “Thanks again for all your sound advice last night, I always appreciate your friendship. Spoke with O’Toole this morning and he will talk with you later.”

Wildstein announced his resignation the next day. Drewniak did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

AFP Photo/Jim Watson

Fired Christie Aide Invokes 5th Amendment, Declines To Produce Subpoenaed Documents

Fired Christie Aide Invokes 5th Amendment, Declines To Produce Subpoenaed Documents

By Melissa Hayes and Shawn Boburg, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.)

HACKENSACK, N.J. — Federal prosecutors investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures have demanded documents from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s office, he said Monday, a development that puts him at the opposite end from the kind of probe he once led as the state’s hard-charging U.S. attorney.

Christie acknowledged the subpoenas during a radio interview Monday evening, as news broke that his former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, would not turn over documents in response to a subpoena issued by state lawmakers in a parallel investigation. An attorney for Kelly — who wrote the message “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” — cited Kelly’s constitutional protection against self-incrimination. She joins Christie’s campaign manager as the second person to put up a roadblock to an ongoing legislative probe.

But the fact that federal prosecutors sent a subpoena to Christie’s office signaled that the more high-stakes federal investigation had taken a serious turn for the governor who was considered a presidential contender only a few weeks ago. Christie emphatically told listeners of his monthly radio show that he didn’t know about the lane closures beforehand and pledged to get to the bottom of them as he cooperates with subpoenas from both the legislative panel and the U.S. attorney’s office.

“Before these lanes were closed I knew nothing about it,” he said on Ask the Governor on WKXW-FM Monday night. “I didn’t plan it. I didn’t authorize it. I didn’t approve it. I knew nothing about it.”

Christie spoke just two hours after the deadline for 18 individuals, his campaign and his office to respond to legislative subpoenas seeking emails, text messages and other documents related to the lane closures, which many Democrats believe were retribution against the Fort Lee mayor for not endorsing the Republican governor, who won re-election in a landslide last year.

Several individuals asked for extensions. But Michael Critchley Sr., an attorney for Kelly, notified the legislative panel Monday evening that she would not turn over documents. Kelly joins Christie’s former campaign manager, Bill Stepien, in invoking her constitutional right to protect against self-incrimination. Stepien’s attorney said Friday he would not turn over documents.

The information requested by the legislative panel, Critchley wrote Monday, “directly overlaps with a parallel federal grand jury investigation.” The letter also cites her right to privacy. In a brief phone interview, Critchley said his client had not received a subpoena from federal prosecutors.

Providing the committee with “unfettered access to, among other things, Ms. Kelly’s personal diaries, calendars and all of her electronic devices amounts to an inappropriate and unlimited invasion of Ms. Kelly’s personal privacy and would also potentially reveal highly personal confidential communications completely unrelated to the reassignment of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge,” Critchley wrote.

“I would hope they would share information, any information they have that would let me get to the bottom of it, but on the other hand, they have constitutional rights like everybody else and have the right to exercise them. There’s nothing I can do about that,” Christie said when asked on the radio program about her refusal to comply with the subpoena.

Christie, who said he fired Kelly because she lied to him, has also said he did not ask her why she apparently ordered the lanes closed.

The governor said he is cooperating with subpoenas from both the legislative panel and the U.S. attorney’s office. On the radio show he said his office began turning over documents to the Joint Legislative Select Committee on Investigations on Monday and will do so on a rolling basis as they are located.

An attorney for his campaign said earlier in the day it had received an extension while it seeks approval from the State Election Law Enforcement Commission to use campaign funds to pay for legal bills and to hire a document retention firm. The legislative panel also granted an extension to Christina Genovese Renna, who served as director of intergovernmental affairs under Kelly until she resigned Friday.

Christie also used the radio show to dispute a former political appointee’s assertion that he knew about the closures when they happening and said he hired a high-powered law firm to carry out a swift investigation so he can get answers.

“I can’t wait for them to be finished so I can get the full story here,” he said.

Christie didn’t rule out that he might have heard about traffic but said he didn’t know there was a problem until Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority, sent an internal email, which was leaked to the press, questioning the closures.

Though the governor spoke at length about the September traffic jam, most callers to the show were seeking information on other issues and Christie worked to put the incident behind him saying he met with Democratic Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto for an hour and a half Monday to talk about their agenda for the year.

“They and I understand that our job is to run the state of New Jersey,” he said.

There was no mention on the show of criticism from Environment New Jersey that Christie’s administration pushed for a natural gas pipeline through the pinelands, a protected area, because Genovese Renna’s husband works for the company. A spokesman for the governor called the idea “ludicrous” and a company spokesman said Renna, president of South Jersey Industries, had nothing to do with the utility subsidiary responsible for the project.

In a joint statement Democratic Assemblyman John Wisniewski and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, also a Democrat, who co-chair the legislative committee, said Monday that “numerous extensions have been granted to subpoena recipients.” Weinberg said she did know who was given extensions and a spokesman for Wisniewski declined to provide additional information.

“No documents will be released today,” the statement said. “The committee will announce its next step as soon as that course is decided.”

In an interview, Weinberg said the committee was discussing the decisions by Kelly and Stepien to invoke the Fifth.

“It’s frustrating when we’re trying to find the truth of the situation that started with the governor saying he was going to cooperate and urge others to do the same,” Weinberg said. “Obviously, we’ll have to keep plugging away.”

Four Republican committee members — Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi and Amy Handlin, Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll and Sen. Kevin O’Toole — sent a letter to the chairs Monday seeking equal access to documents and information.

Schepisi said Monday she learned that the committee’s special counsel, Reid Schar, had met with the U.S. attorney’s office after reading it in The Record newspaper over the weekend. Wisniewski and Weinberg released a statement from Schar about the Friday meeting to the media on Saturday.

Schepisi said all of the members of the committee — and not just the chairs — should be receiving regular updates for the sake of “transparency, openness, fairness and ensuring that our committee is not abusing power as it’s investigating abuse of power.”

Weinberg said she thought Schar’s statement went to all members of the committee and that the Republicans would get equal access to the documents once they come in.

The lane closures have shaken up the governor’s inner circle. Christie fired Kelly and cut ties with Stepien after he called the Fort Lee mayor an “idiot” in an email. Wildstein and Bill Baroni, who Christie named deputy executive director of the Port Authority, have both resigned. Wildstein and Baroni were also subpoenaed.

In a letter Friday, Wildstein’s attorney said “evidence exists” that Christie knew about the closures when they happened. Christie denied the allegation Monday after his staff sent an email attacking Wildstein’s credibility Saturday.

AFP Photo/Jim Watson