The federal judge presiding over the trial of Governor Chris Christie’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Ann Kelly and former Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni in the George Washington Bridge lane closures ruled yesterday that Christie’s taxpayer funded lawyers used a clever, calculated tactic that had “the same effect” as deleting and shredding documents at the center of the so called independent investigation into the matter which purportedly exonerated Christie.
“The taxpayers of the State of New Jersey paid GDC (Gibson Dunn & Crutcher) to conduct a transparent and thorough investigation. What they got instead was opacity and gamesmanship. They deserve better,” wrote Judge Susan D. Wigenton.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: December 17th, 2015 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Bridgegate, Chris Christie | Tags: Bill Baroni, Bridgegate, Bridget Ann Kelly, Chris Christie, Judge Susan D. Wigenton, Mastro Report, Randy Mastro | Comments Off on Federal Judge: Christie’s Bridgegate Lawyers Hid Investigation Content
Bridget Ann Kelly, texting, with Governor Chris Christie and Michelle Brown at Seaside Park fire, September 12, 2013. Photo by Phil Stilton
TRENTON — Taxpayers have picked up an $8 million tab for the private law firm hired by Gov. Chris Christie in the wake of the Bridgegate scandal, according the latest billing vouchers through August. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher billed the state $53,824 in May, $27,930 in June, $67,706 in July and $52,925 in August, according to… Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: December 12th, 2015 | Author: admin | Filed under: Bridgegate, Chris Christie | Tags: Bridgegate, Bridgegate Investigation, Bridgegate legal fees, Chris Christie, Debra Wong Yang, Gibson Dunn Crutcher, Mastro Report, Randy Mastro | 1 Comment »
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 »
Posted: April 16th, 2014 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2016 Presidential Politics, Bridgegate, Chris Christie, Dawn Zimmer, Hoboken, Monmouth University Poll, NJ Media, Patrick Murray | Tags: Bridgegate, Mark Magyar, Mastro Report, Monmouth Poll, NJSpotlight, Patrick Murray, Randy Mastro, Robert Del Tufo | Comments Off on Patrick Murray is emphatic that his next poll will be negative for Christie
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: April 16th, 2014 | Author: admin | Filed under: 2016 Presidential Politics, Bridgegate, Chris Christie | Tags: Bridgegate, Chris Christie, Mastro Report, Randy Mastro | Comments Off on He Said, She Said: Quotable Moments From The Bridgegate Interviews
CNN is broadcasting the media briefing from Randy Mastro of Gibson Dunn, the lead investigator for the Christie Administration into “Bridgegate”, the scandal involving the Geroge Washington Bridge lane closures last September and Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s allegations that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadango and others in the Administration held Sandy aid for Hoboken hostage pending a development approval that Zimmer did not want to give.
The CNN Live Stream can be found here.
An advance copy of the Mastro report concludes that Governor Chris Christie was not aware of the GWB lane closures and has told the truth about it since his January 9 press conference. Christie was reportedly in tear when he learned that his Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Ann Kelly had repeatedly lied about her involvement in the lane closures.
The report concludes that Kelly, and David Wildstein, then Christie’s #2 at the Port Authority of NY/NJ acted alone. After 70 interviews and reviewing 250,000 documents, Mastro and his team did not uncover the motivation for the lane closures.
With regard to Zimmer’s allegations, Mastro’s team concluded that the Mayor’s allegations are “unsubstantiated and materially false.
The 345 page, “thorough and exhaustive report” can be viewed here
Posted: March 27th, 2014 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Bridgegate | Tags: Bridgegate Press Conference, Randy Mastro | 5 Comments »
Trenton, NJ – Today, the Christie Administration announced the retention of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP to assist with the internal review announced by Governor Christie last week and to further cooperate with the U.S. Attorney inquiry. As part of the review process, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP will review best practices for office operations and information flow, and assist with document retention and production.
“Governor Christie made clear last week that he will conduct an internal review to uncover the facts surrounding the lane closures in Fort Lee. His Administration is fully cooperating with the U.S. Attorney inquiry and other appropriate inquiries and requests for information. To assist in conducting that internal review and furthering that cooperation, the Christie Administration is announcing today that Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP has been retained as outside counsel. Their presence will bring an outside, third-party perspective to the situation, and they will be a valuable asset as we move forward. This Administration is committed to ensuring that what happened here never happens again. That’s what the people of New Jersey deserve.”
Heading up the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP team is former federal prosecutor Randy Mastro. Mastro is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he specialized in organized crime cases and spearheaded the federal government’s landmark racketeering suit that compelled the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to hold democratic elections and to undergo court supervision. Mastro also served as former Deputy Mayor of New York City.
Posted: January 16th, 2014 | Author: admin | Filed under: Chris Christie, Christie Administration, Port Authority | Tags: Bridgegate, Chris Christie, Gibson Dunn Crutcher, Press Release, Randy Mastro | 6 Comments »
The federal judge presiding over the trial of Governor Chris Christie’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Ann Kelly and former Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni in the George Washington Bridge lane closures ruled yesterday that Christie’s taxpayer funded lawyers used a clever, calculated tactic that had “the same effect” as deleting and shredding documents at the center of the so called independent investigation into the matter which purportedly exonerated Christie.
