The purpose of the investigation in not a probe of Christie. The purpose to the change the culture of the Port Authority.
Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the Democratic Co-Chairman of the joint legislative committee investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures last September, almost sounded as if he was defending Governor Chris Christie yesterday morning during an appearance on NBC’s Meet The Press.
In the wake of the media frenzy caused by the released of the letterwritten by the attorney representing David Wildstein, the former Port Authority official who order the lane closures, that asserted that “evidence exists” that Christie knew about the lane closures while they were happening, Wisniewski raised questions about Wildstein’s credibility and said emphatically, multiple times, that there is no proof that Christie was involved in the incident.
EAST RUTHERFORD — The Brooklyn man arrested after he interrupted Super Bowl XVIII MVP Malcolm Smith’s postgame news conference didn’t start Sunday looking to make it onto national TV and, ultimately, into handcuffs. Matthew Mills, an 30-year-old independent…
A 35 year old State Trooper assigned to protect Governor Chris Christie and his family was arrested on theft charges in Hamburg, Pennsylvania last month, according to a report at NJWatchdog.
Trooper William A. Carvounis of North Brunswick is accused of stealing $267 in gun supplies and other goods from a Cabela’s store.
“During the course of his shopping, (Carvounis) would place items in his shopping basket. While walking around and continuing to shop, he would take various merchandise out of the package and conceal in his pockets…He would discard the empty packages on shelves throughout the store,” wrote Schwoyer in his sworn statement.
Security video also caught Carvounis’ coup de grace: The trooper tore the price tag from a Cabela’s hat, which he wore while trying to leave the store.
When Carvounis was apprehended and searched, authorities found a concealed weapon along with the pilfered loot. They soon realized their suspect was a law enforcement officer.
The report said Carvounis tried to get the retailer and the local police to drop the matter as a “professional courtesy” and that he invoked his connection to Christie in his plea for leniency.
Carvounis has been suspended from the NJ State Police and is due in Berks County Court of Common Pleas for his arraignment on February 10.
NEWARK — A year after being denied a speaking spot at one of the largest annual gatherings of conservatives, Gov. Chris Christie will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference next month, according to a report on Yahoo News. The gathering…
Governor Chris Christie’s office went on the offensive today, attacking The New York Times and David Wildstein, in an email to friends and allies, according to a report at Politico.
The email reads as follows:
5 Things You Should Know About The Bombshell That’s Not A Bombshell
1. New York Times Bombshell Not A Bombshell. A media firestorm was set off by sloppy reporting from the New York Times and their suggestion that there was actually “evidence” when it was a letter alleging that “evidence exists.” Forced to change the lead almost immediately, the Times was roundly criticized, and its editor was forced to issue this extraordinary statement to the Huffington Post:
Most people who are paying attention to ‘Bridgegate’ now realize that the letter from David Wildstein’s attorney, Alan Zegas, released to the press yesterday afternoon is not the smoking gun that many in the media have been hoping for that would put an end to Governor Chris Christie’s presidential ambitions or possibly lead to his resignation or impeachment.
The letter, part of a negotiation with Port Authority over Wildstein’s legal fees, is not evidence that Christie lied in his January 9, 2013 press conference. The letter raises many questions and answers few if any. Some of those questions could complicate Wildstein’s legal problems. Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the co-chair of the state legislative committee investigating Bridgegate, wants to know why Wildstein did not include the evidence referred to in the letter with all the other documents he provided to the Assembly Transportation Committee, including the now infamous email exchange between Wildstein and Bridget Ann Kelly that blew the Bridgegate story open on January 8.
If any of the news outlets that reported on the letter revealed who released it, I missed it.
The release of the letter reignited the media frenzy over Bridgegate just as Christie was generating non-scandal related publicity associated with the Super Bowl and Howard Stern’s birthday. That was obviously the intent of releasing the letter. By protecting the identity of the leaker, the media is complicit with that agenda.
TRENTON — If true, the claims in former Port Authority official David Wildstein’s letter are explosive and potentially deadly to Gov. Chris Christie’s political future, New Jersey politicians agreed today. But they also conceded the letter raised…
In a strongly worded 19-page letter, the lawyer to Bill Stepien, the former campaign manager and staffer to Gov. Chris Christie embroiled in the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal, is objecting to a subpoena sent to his client by a legislative…
Governor Chris Christie’s office released the following statement addressing the allegations made in The New York Times today:
“Mr. Wildstein’s lawyer confirms what the Governor has said all along – he had absolutely no prior knowledge of the lane closures before they happened and whatever Mr. Wildstein’s motivations were for closing them to begin with. As the Governor said in a December 13th press conference, he only first learned lanes were closed when it was reported by the press and as he said in his January 9th press conference, had no indication that this was anything other than a traffic study until he read otherwise the morning of January 8th. The Governor denies Mr. Wildstein’s lawyer’s other assertions.”
NEWARK — Sen. Robert Menendez accepted a third flight on the private plane of a wealthy campaign donor now under federal investigation that he did not disclose until several years later, something the senator’s office called an “oversight.” The powerful…
