Governor Chris Christie’s held is first press conference since January 9 this afternoon to answer questions regarding the Mastro Report into the George Washington Bridge lane closures known as Bridgegate that was released yesterday.
Christie announced the resignation of Port Authority Chairman David Samson in his statement prior to taking reporters questions.
The press conference was available live on MMM via livestream.
A recording of the press conference is made available courtesy of NJTV.
Governor Chris Christie will end his 75 day exile from the New Jersey press corps this afternoon at 2:30 with a press conference in his outer office.
Christie has not taken questions from the press since his January 9 marathon press conference about the revelations that members of his team had orchestrated the George Washington Bridge lane closures last September.
Yesterday the lawyers that Christie hired to investigate GWB lane closures and Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s allegations that he, through Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno, threaten to withhold Sandy relief from Hoboken unless Zimmer secured a zoning approval for the Rockefeller Group, a client of Port Authority Chairman David Samson, released their findings. The report backed up Christie’s claims from his January 9 press conference that he had no involvement in the lane closures and Guadagno’s denial of Zimmer’s allegations. The investigation cost New Jersey taxpayers roughly $1 million.
The report blamed Christie’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Ann Kelly and his former #2 at Port Authority David Wildstein for the GWB lane closures and concluded that the widely speculated motive for the lane closures…political retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich…did not make sense. The report says the motive for the lane closures remains a mystery. Kelly’s termination from Christie’s staff was announced at the January 9 press conference, the day after her “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” email to Wildstein became public.
Governor Chris Christie will hold his first Statehouse press conference since being reelected at 1:45 this afternoon. According to the announcement from his press office, he will be announcing personnel changes in his administration and taking questions from the press corps.