CHRIC CHRISTIE INVESTIGATES SELF AND FINDS NO WRONG DOING IN BRIDGEGATE

CHRISTIE SAVES CHRISTIE PART I




With his office suddenly engulfed in scandal over lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey two months ago summoned a pair of top defense lawyers from an elite law firm to the State House and asked them to undertake an extensive review of what had gone wrong.

Now, after 70 interviews and at least $1 million in legal fees to be paid by state taxpayers, that review is set to be released, and according to people with firsthand knowledge of the inquiry, it has uncovered no evidence that the governor was involved in the plotting or directing of the lane closings.

The review is the first of multiple inquiries into a scandal that has jeopardized Mr. Christie’s political future. It will be viewed with intense skepticism, not only because it was commissioned by the governor but also because the firm conducting it, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, has close ties to the Christie administration and the firm’s lawyers were unable to interview three principal players in the shutdowns, including Bridget Anne Kelly, the governor’s former deputy chief of staff.

CHRISTIE SAVES CHRISTIE PART II




Its pretty sad when Christie's law firm, "Chutzpah", 'Bullshit", and "Hubris" concoct a story so far stretching, [which includes a purported sordid tryst between Bridget Kelly and Bill Stepien] that even right wing nut jobs have a hard time fathoming it.

New Jersey tax payers, one million dollars poorer - and still having to deal with the bloviated Kripsy Kreme liar as their Governor.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

GOVERNOR KRISPY KREME COMES OUT SWINGING

After being silent on the latest revelation by Christie's long time friend David Wildstein, the governor's office blasted out an email response attacking his former friend and the NY Times.

Governor Christie came out smoking mad against his former friend and the NY Times Saturday afternoon after the Times ran a story on the Friday before the Super Bowl alleging that there is evidence proving the governor knew about the lane closing scandal in Fort Lee while it was happening.

His office sent out a furious email denouncing Wildstein and the Grey Lady.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, after a low-key initial response to Friday’s explosive allegations about his involvement in a bridge-closing scandal, mounted an aggressive defense late Saturday afternoon, attacking The New York Times and a former political ally in an email to friends and allies obtained by POLITICO. 

“Bottom line — David Wildstein will do and say anything to save David Wildstein,” the email from the governor’s office says, referring to the former appointee who reignited the controversy. 

A letter from Wildstein’s lawyer, Alan L. Zegas of Chatham, N.J., asserted Friday that “evidence exists … tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the Governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference.” 

The subject line of the 700-word email from the governor’s office is: “5 Things You Should Know About The Bombshell That’s Not A Bombshell.” It offers a harshly negative portrayal of Wildstein’s character and judgment. 

The Christie camp begins by criticizing The Times for its initial characterization of the Wildstein letter: “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.’ 

Chris Christie tried to lower the boom on his old friend by using the tried and true political character assassination technique, but that's almost laughable at this point. 

“In David Wildstein’s past, people and newspaper accounts have described him as ‘tumultuous’ and someone who ‘made moves that were not productive,’” the email continues. 

“David Wildstein has been publicly asking for immunity since the beginning, been held in contempt by the New Jersey legislature for refusing to testify, failed to provide this so-called ‘evidence’ when he was first subpoenaed by the NJ Legislature and is looking for the Port Authority to pay his legal bills.”

The email dips far back into Wildstein’s past to buttress its portrayal of him, even alleging that “he was publicly accused by his high school social studies teacher of deceptive behavior.”

If David Wildstein was such a bad guy - then why did Gov. Christie appoint him to a high position in the Port Authority at all? Doesn't his failings also indict Christie for being an incompetent boss if what he says is true?

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

Subpoenas Go Out For Christie Campaign And GOP State Committee Over Bridgeghazi

SAMPLE FEDERAL SUBPOENA

The U.S. Attorney for New Jersey has issued a subpoena for documents to both the Christie for Governor reelection campaign and the New Jersey Republican State Committee, an attorney for both organizations confirmed today.

According to attorney Mark Sheridan, the subpoenas request documents from the two organizations in relation to the investigation into lane diversions at the George Washington Bridge in September.

Both organizations are represented by the law firm of Patton Boggs, which has offices in Newark. In a statement to NJ.com, Sheridan said the following:

"The Christie for Governor re-election campaign and the New Jersey Republican State Committee received subpoenas for documents from the U.S. Attorney's office, in addition to the subpoena the campaign previously received from the state legislative committee. All three subpoenas focus on the closure of lanes on the George Washington Bridge. The campaign and the state party intend to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney's office and the state legislative committee and will respond to the subpoenas accordingly.''

Calls to both the Christie reelection campaign and the state GOP committee for comment were not immediately returned.

The U.S. Attorney's subpoenas follow a round of 20 issued last week by the Assembly committee conducting its own investigation into the lane diversion scandal, which has quickly morphed into a nightmare for the governor.

Email records released earlier this month show a member of his administration was involved in the lane closures, from the beginning. While the Port Authority officials responsible for the controversy claimed the lane diversions were part of a traffic study, the email traffic hints it was done as a form of political retribution.

The governor is now facing potential federal involvement on two fronts. Last night, NBC reported FBI agents were questioning Hoboken employees in connection with claims from Mayor Dawn Zimmer that the administration threatened to choke off Hurricane Sandy relief if she failed to support a development project favored by the governor.

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who Zimmer said issued the threat, has vehemently denied the accusation, but last night agents questioned two of Zimmer's closes advisors.

Meanwhile, the investigation by the Assembly committee is expected to merge Monday with the probe underway by a Senate committee. Response to the subpoenas issued in that investigation are due in early February.

To date, no evidence has surfaced that connects Christie himself to the lane closures, however, the scandal already has claimed the jobs of Port Authority officials Bill Baroni and David Wildstein as well as Christie administration Deputy Cheif of Staff Bridget Kelly, the staffer who was implicated by an email she sent in August apparently ordering the lane diversions.

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," she emailed a month before the lanes were diverted, to which Wildstein replied, "Got it."

The administration also cut ties with Christie's two-time campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who Christie said he had lost faith in after reading emails between Stepien and Wildstein showing Stepien discussing the media reaction to the lane closures with Wildstein.

Article form NJ.com

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

THE BOSS MOCKS CHRIS CHRSITIE

Embroiled "Bridge Over Hubris" Governor Chris Christie adores him some Bruce Springsteen - when it comes to the GW traffic jam, the feelings don't seem to be reciprocal.




Freaking hilarious!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

ITS ALL ABOUT ME

SANDYGATE AND BRIDGEGAZI CONSUME CHRIS CHRISTIE

The Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has opened a federal investigation into whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie improperly used Hurricane Sandy relief funds to produce commercials starring himself and his family ahead of his re-election campaign. Auditors will examine how the Christie administration used $25 million set aside for “a marketing campaign to promote the Jersey Shore and encourage tourism,” focusing on the bidding process awarding a $4.7 million contract to a politically connected firm that cast Christie and his family in the Sandy ads, while “a comparable firm proposed billing the state $2.5 million for similar work” but did not include Christie in the commercials.

The ads produced by the company, MWW, attracted significant criticism. The New Jersey Star Ledger accused Christie of siphoning off “money that was intended for victims of Sandy to promote himself in a series of TV ads,” and described the move as “offensive” and a ” new low.”

CHRIS CHRISTIE AD

Congress raised alarms about the ads in August. In August, Rep. Frank Pallone alerted the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that the Christie administration may have “irresponsibly misappropriated funding allocated by Congress from the Sandy aid package” and used funds set aside for promoting the state “for political purposes.” “The contract was awarded to a firm that is charging over $2 million more than the next lowest bidder to develop the marketing plan,” Pallone wrote, noting that “the winning bid proposed including Governor Chris Christie in the advertisements, while the lower cost proposal that was not selected did not.” “It is inappropriate for taxpayer-funded dollars that are critical to our state’s recovery from this natural disaster to fund commercials that could potentially benefit a political campaign.”

Conservatives questioned Christie’s staring role. In November, Sen. Rand Paul said Christie’s appearance in the television ads gave the recovery effort a “black eye.” “People running for office put their mug all over these ads while they were in the middle of a political campaign,” Paul said during a committee hearing. “In New Jersey, $25 million was spent on ads that included somebody running for political office. You think there might be a conflict of interest there? That’s a real problem and that’s why when people who are trying to do good and trying to use taxpayers’ money wisely, they’re offended to see our money spent on political ads. That’s just offensive.”

Chair of bidding committee has close ties to Christie. A six-member bid evaluation committee of Christie administration officials selected the higher price despite issuing a report that said Sigma’s proposal also “addressed the tasks and deliverables specified in the RFQ (request for quotation) … (and) could effectively meet the requirements of this RFQ.” Michele Brown, a close Christie aid, led the bid evaluation. “Brown is a former federal prosecutor in New Jersey but resigned that post in 2009 amid controversy over a loan of $46,000 from Christie,” Asbury Park Press reports.

The winning firm donated thousands to Republicans. The East Rutherford, New Jersey based MWW Firm has donated heavily to Democrats, but “MWW employees donated $1,000 to Christie’s 2009 Republican gubernatorial primary campaign and $1,500 to his 2010 inaugural committee.” The MWW Group PAC “spent $95,250 in the 2012 federal election cycle, with 73 percent of the money going to Democrats, though the largest single expenditure, $5,000, went to the National Republican Congressional Committee.” The losing ad firm, Sigma, did not make any political contributions.

The winning firm originally sought more money. Contract documents reveal that “MWW’s team had sought $5.2 million in labor costs and markups, with company CEO Kempner requesting his own compensation to be set at $595 per hour. After negotiations with state officials, MWW reduced its price and removed Kempner from the compensation list.”

Christie says he selected firm for its “statewide connections.” The Christie administration insists that MWW was the best choice, claiming that it had “statewide connections that would allow it to mobilize quickly to perform the high-stakes work of boosting tourism in the first summer season since superstorm Sandy.” “The size and scope of the PR campaign that MWW undertook was far larger and more labor-intensive than any other bidder’s,” said Michael Drewniak, a Christie spokesperson.

Christie has responded by attributing the ads to Obama: “The Stronger Than The Storm [ad] campaign was just one part of the first action plan approved by the Obama Administration and developed with the goal of effectively communicating that the Jersey Shore was open for business during the first summer after Sandy,” Christie spokesperson Colin Reed said in a statement. “We’re confident that any review will show that the ads were a key part in helping New Jersey get back on its feet after being struck by the worst storm in state history.” While the Obama administration approved a waiver to allow the state to spend $25 million on ads, it was not involved in the bidding process under federal review.

I am reminded that "Deep Throat" once told Bob Woodward. "follow the money" - apparently this is still prudent advice today. At this rate maybe we could get Christie to the big house, the gray bar hotel, jail.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

THE BRDIGE OVER RIVER HUBRIS DOCUMENTS

BRIDGEGATE - THE DOCUMENTS

Finally, NFTOS was able to get the full document disclosure of Chris Christie gate, or as its better known, BRIDGEGATE, or as I like to call it, "Bridge Over River Hubris".

Below is the entire lot of documents, enjoy.

Note to readers: This page will take several seconds to fully load all documents. Scroll down to view Exhibits A through G, released by the NJ Assembly committee investigating the George Washington Bridge controversy and the Christie administration's role in it. Also if you click the "exhibit" hyperlink it will take to a scribd viewer which is larger than what NFTOS can provide.

  Exhibit A

   Exhibit B

   Exhibit C

   Exhibit D

   Exhibit E

   Exhibit F

   Exhibit G

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

AND NOW THE REAL TRUTH

CHRIS CHRISTIE AND BRIDGEGAZI

Rachel Maddow presents a new possibility of what the induced Ft. Lee traffic jam was retribution for. If it wasn't over the mayor’s gubernatorial endorsement, what was it for? Keep reading as it doesn't have a thing to do with the Mayor of Ft. Lee, New Jersey.

If Christie was telling the truth when he said the mayor of Fort Lee wasn't really on his radar, then perhaps the retaliatory action wasn't aimed at the mayor at all. Maybe it was aimed at someone else.

Bridget Kelly sent the infamous email at 7:34 AM on August 13, 2013 saying it was "time for some traffic problems around Fort Lee." What would have prompted her to send that? What was happening in the middle of August (besides endorsements) that would have given rise to this particular form of political retribution?

New Jersey Supreme Court battles were happening.


MADDOW VIDEO COURTESY OF MSNBC




It certainly makes more sense than the theory that Christie was getting revenge on the mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing him. As Maddow pointed out in the segment, there were quite a few Democrats who didn't endorse Christie and they didn't experience any payback from the governor.

I anxiously await the song bird to start singing......enter Bridget Kelly.

RELATED: Documents released: Download the documents here (download speeds are slow due to demand) or view them here without downloading.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

CORRUPT OR INCOMPETENT?

Today Chris Christie found himself waist deep in cow dung - today he spent the better half of two hours trying to tell both his state and the country that he knew nothing about "Bridgegate".

It's no surprise that Christie says he didn't know anything about his administration's involvement in the Fort Lee lane closure scandal until Wednesday of this week. But what is surprising is his explanation for why we should believe him, because it's a really flimsy one.


MADDOW Video Courtesy of MSNBC




E-mails show that the Christie administration wanted to create traffic problems in Fort Lee.

Even as Chris Christie attempts to distance himself from responsibility for the GWB fiasco, e-mails recently released to the public show that his administration orchestrated the traffic delays, with no concern about medical emergencies or the health and safety of New Jersey residents. This was apparently done in order to retaliate against the Mayor of Ft. Lee, Mark Sokolich.

CHRIS HAYES Video Courtesy of MSNBC




Wildstein today refused to testify before the Assembly, on January 9th.

Another Christie staffer, David Wildstein, later gave the order to close down the three lanes around the GWB. The public was not notified, nor were any plans made to prevent accidents and injuries, or ensure the safe flow of traffic for emergency vehicles.

Wildstein has been fighting against state and federal authorities, in effort to get a quash for a subpoena from the New Jersey State Assembly. A superior court judge denied his motion to quash and ordered him to testify before the Assembly, on January 9, 2014. Almost as soon as Wildstein took the stand, he exercised his right to remain silent, in order to avoid incriminating himself.

Christie can forget ever being President, and if a fired staffer steps up and speaks up, and they can link the bloviated road blocker to this fiasco, his days as governor are numbered as well.

Christie spent an enormous amount of his time today telling us how much of a bully - he is not -trying to slip-n-slide away from the narrative of - " are you sure you knew nothing of this plan"

Personally I could care less if Christie is a bully, my concern is- if he knew of this diabolical retribution schema, then he is one of the most corrupt deviant f*cks to ever hold a governors office - and if he indeed knew nothing of this, then he is the most incompetent Governor to ever hold office. Embarrassed, shamed, who cares.

So, I propose two queries, is Chris Christie a corrupt bastard, or is he incompetent? Does it matter if he is either of the two?

I would imagine that there is much more to story to be told, I'll hold judgment until the smoking gun is fully engulfed before I go full throttle on his ass. I would imagine there is a weasel in the weeds just waiting to sing the "Chris Christie knew of the plan" song. Stay tuned!

RELATED:

This is not the first time Christie has conducted retribution.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER

CHRIS CHRISTIE'S  "BRIDGEGATE"

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie still hasn’t offered an alternate –more believable – explanation for his administration’s controversial lane closures on the George Washington Bridge. The most plausible explanation – that the governor’s administration was punishing a mayor who refused to endorse Christie – is the most politically damaging one, but also the most credible pending further revelations.

Video courtesy of MSNBC




An in-depth follow up can be read here. - RELATED: Gov. Christie's cronies lawyer up as "Bridgegate" gets even messier

You just can't make this stuff up.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West