Report: Christie is U.S. Attorney’s target

MMM photo/Art Gallagher

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman is leaning on former Port Authority officials David Samson, Bill Baroni and David Wildstein and Charles McKenna, Governor Chris Christie’s former Chief Counsel, to”filp” on Christie, according to a report published on Esquire today.

Esquire’s two anonymous sources “with intimate knowledge” of Fishman’s investigation into “Bridgegate” said that Samson, Baroni and Wildstein each face “near-certain” indictment.

Esquire says that Baroni and Wildstein have implicated Samson and that “if Sampson doesn’t give Fishman Christie, Sampson is toast.”

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Bridgegate’s 30 Pivotal Hours: How Kevin O’Dowd Missed The Signs

Bridgegate’s 30 Pivotal Hours: How Kevin O’Dowd Missed The Signs (via NJSpotlight)

Kevin O’Dowd, Christie’s chief of staff, entered Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion in Princeton, as usual by the side entrance, filing through the kitchen and the dining room, where he was surprised to see Gov. Chris Christie sitting huddled…

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Chris Christie’s spokesman calls bridge closings ‘idiotic,’ lays out timeline

Chris Christie’s spokesman calls bridge closings ‘idiotic,’ lays out timeline (via NJ.com)

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie’s chief spokesman told lawmakers investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closings Tuesday that he had nothing to do with “this idiotic episode” and that he didn’t attempt to cover it up when the controversy…

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Bridge scandal committee’s legal costs crack $725,000

Bridge scandal committee’s legal costs crack $725,000 (via NJ.com)

The legislative committee investigating the George Washington Bridge scandal has so far been billed more than $725,000 in legal fees, according to bills submitted by two attorneys representing the committee. Jenner & Block, which has several attorneys…

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Chris Christie lashes out at bridge scandal critics who say his attitude inspired lane closures

Chris Christie lashes out at bridge scandal critics who say his attitude inspired lane closures (via NJ.com)

BRICK — Gov. Chris Christie today sharply dismissed critics who say he may have created a culture of brashness and retaliation that led his staff members to orchestrate last year’s controversial lane closures at the George Washington Bridge. The…

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Patrick Murray: Mark Magyar mischaracterized his analysis

Magyar admits mistake, promises to fix it but doesn’t

By Art Gallagher, [email protected]

Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray responded to my post this morning, Patrick Murray is emphatic that his next poll will be negative for Christie, about his quote in Mark Magyar’s anti-Chistie spin piece on NJSpotlight with an email asserting that his analysis was mischaracteriszed.

Patrick Murray

Murray provided an email exchange between himself and Magyar wherein Magyar admits his mistake and promises to fix it.

Murray said:

• Tweet

Patrick Murray is emphatic that his next poll will be negative for Christie

By Art Gallagher, [email protected]

UPDATE 4:15PM:  Murray says Magyar/NJSpotlight mischaracterised his analysis.  Read the next chapter here.

Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray already knows that his next poll about Bridgegate and the Mastro Report, will have an negative outcome for Governor Chris Christie.

Murray is quoted by Mark Magyar in a NJSpotlight piece posted this morning saying emphatically that his next poll will have negative results.

“The Mastro report raised more questions than it answered about what is going on in the Christie administration,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, noted. “Now, the release of the memos has raised even more questions, including questions about the credibility of the Mastro report itself.”

Murray said he could not imagine what Christie and his top advisers were thinking when they settled on their current legal and political strategy. “Every time they put something out, they undercut their credibility,” he said. “Everything they do provides fodder that keeps this investigation alive and keeps this story alive. The report was overly protective of the governor, and now everyone is looking through the memos to see what the report left out. Nothing gets settled, everything looks worse.”

A Quinnipiac Poll released last week showed that 56 percent of New Jerseyans regarded the report as a “whitewash” and only 36 percent believed it to be a “legitimate investigation.” Even more ominously, 65 percent of voters knew of the Hoboken case, and 57 percent of that group believe Zimmer’s allegation that the Christie administration improperly withheld Sandy aid from her city because she refused to support the Rockefeller Group development.

Murray said he expected to see similar results in his next Monmouth Poll. “It will be negative. This is not going to be positive,” Murray stated emphatically, asserting that the controversy over the Mastro report clearly resonated with voters. “The question now with Christie is, ‘Have we hit a floor where a certain percentage of people will defend him no matter what, and everyone else will attack him?’”  (emphasis added)

 

Murray enjoys a well-earned reputation for producing polls that most accurately match the results of elections in New Jersey.  However, his declaration of a poll’s results before he’s asked a question raises serious questions about his credibility as a political scientist and the perceived “independence” of his analysis.

In fairness I should point out that it is possible that Murray already conducted his survey and hasn’t reported the results yet.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

He Said, She Said: Quotable Moments From The Bridgegate Interviews

He Said, She Said: Quotable Moments From The Bridgegate Interviews (via NJSpotlight)

Newly released documents offer additional details about the scandals enveloping the Christie Administration. The documents are summaries of interviews with 70 people that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s lawyers conducted as part of an internal review…

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Judge Tosses Out Subpoenas in GWB Investigation

Judge Tosses Out Subpoenas in GWB Investigation (via NJTV News with Mike Schneider)

A big development today in the bridge scandal investigation. A judge sided with two major figures in the case, tossing out the subpoenas against Bridget Kelly and Bill Stepien and ruling against the select oversight committee that issued them. The committee…

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Sweeney walks back comments on halting NJ bridge scandal investigation

Sweeney walks back comments on halting NJ bridge scandal investigation (via NJ.com)

NEWARK — Hours after Senate President Stephen Sweeney floated the idea of halting a legislative investigation of the George Washington Bridge scandal, he issued a statement saying the panel still has lots of work to do. “I do not believe the committee…

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet