As Jay H. Ell blogged, just a few short days ago, the Christie saga would unravel making him “history" - and it has at a dramatic pace. There are multiple enquiries, investigations and civil lawsuits that have been set into motion.There are substantial allegations that he lied at his Press Conference. The most serious allegation being that he had not spoken to the man who put the lane closure into effect David Wildstein for a long while. Jay H. Ell is sure Christie, “was embarrassed and humiliated” when the The Wall Street Journal published a picture of him conversing with Wildstein on September 11, 2013 at the height of the lane closure.
Allan Dershowitz believes that he could be charged criminally, for “Willful Negligence”, for any of the deaths or losses resulting from the bridge closure. The two most ominous threats to Christie at the moment are the New Jersey legislative assembly investigation and the investigation of misappropriation of Hurricane relief funds. In the legislative investigation a special counsel, Reid Schar, has been appointed to lead the evidence. Schar was the lead Federal prosecutor in the conviction of Illinois Governor Blagojevich and others in corruption leading to heavy sentences. He has represented the Government in several such other cases. Schar has already issued 20 subpoenas showing the breath of the investigation.
Every possible fact is being dug up and issues that were once not even newsworthy at the time are getting the full treatment. In Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s, otherwise forgettable, book Double Down, the latter maintain that Christie was vetted and rejected by Romney as a possible Vice Presidential choice. Broadly speaking the issues that arose in the vetting process are being vented again. Many wondered why Romney did not choose him as he was immensely popular, he hadn’t hugged Obama yet and was well in with the Conservatives at that stage.
THE ADVERT FEATURING CHRISTIE FAMILY.
The other most threatening investigation is into how he spent $25 million of Federal money, given to Hurricane Sandy victims, for an advertising campaign to promote tourism in New Jersey. The latter featured him and his family in the midst of his gubernatorial election campaign. At the time he was attacked all round including by Tea Party luminary Rand Paul for spending relief money for what amounted to electioneering.
The anatomy of that advert and all that surrounds it is illustrative of the cronyism and corruption in government and is as follows:
Ostensibly bids were asked for a TV ad to promote tourism. Two firms in the running were, MWW and Sigma. The Sigma’s bid was $2.0 million less than MWW. MWW liberally featured the Christie family and Sigma didn’t. Sigma were asked during the pitch process if they would feature the Christie family in their ads and they gave a non committal response. MWW were awarded the contract. MWW are also big donors to the Republican Party.
The selection committee were all Christie appointees and was headed by a Michele Brown. The latter worked for Christie when he was a US Attorney for the State of New Jersey in the Federal Government and was involved in a scandal that led her to resign. Christie lent her $47,000 without reporting it and paying tax on the interest. She conveniently resigned taking pressure off the whole issue. She was also accused by then Governor Corzine, who Christie was to defeat in his first election as Governor of New Jersey, in not responding to his Freedom of Information Requests on Christie.
A reporter for a New Jersey public T. V. station questioned Christie on his loan to Brown. Christie first had a discussion with him and asked if he was really going to go ahead with the interview. He replied in the positive and asked some hard questions. That public T. V. station was closed down by Christie with a loss of a 150 jobs.
Michele Brown’s official title in the New Jersey Administration is Chief Executive of the State’s Economic Development Authority. This is an area that she had had no previous known experience as she was a lawyer both for the government and private practice prior to the appointment. Her salary is $225,000 per year.
Christie himself as the US Attorney was involved in plenty of other controversy. He was investigated for gross business overspenditure that was detailed in the Inspector General’s report. Fourteen of the fifteen instances investigated showed that he his expenditures were way over the limit allowed. But more materially he gave massive no compete contracts to cronies. One of these was to his boss John Ashcroft's firm of $28 - 52 million. Another questioned multimillion contract was to a former Federal Prosecutor, David Kelley, who elected not to prosecute his brother Todd for certain alleged criminal activities. He awarded a contract a $10 million to former mentor Herbert Stern who was one of his biggest donors in his gubernatorial campaigns, Then there was a deferred prosecution of Bristol Myers on condition they gave $5 million for a Chair at his alma mater’s law school. There were other decisions he made and all this led to changes in Justice Department rules and legislative hearings.
So there is layer upon layer of corruption and cronyism, it would appear on anything and everything. One wonders what a skilled prosecutor will uncover in an all embracing investigation. What was originally an investigation by the New Jersey Transportation Committee has become an investigation into his office and abuse of power.
UPSHOT
Christie’s poll numbers in New Jersey have dropped. But surprisingly only 51% don’t believe he was telling the whole truth at his Press Conference. His personal impression ratings from a year ago have dropped from 70% to 44%. The good news for him was that his job approval rating has only dropped 6% over this crisis - which doesn’t say much for the expectations of New Jerseyians! The really bad news is that he has dropped 13 points behind Hillary in the National Polls for the 2016 Presidential election.
Christie and all his top administration officials have appointed personal lawyers which means that they recognize the seriousness of the situation. Christie has made it quite clear that he will only co operate with “appropriate” investigations. Thus far Christie has intimated that his lawyer would assist in the local US State’s Attorney’s office investigation which has got to be the least of his problems. Several of Christie’s administration come from the current State Attorney's office. (It never ends does it).Christie’s personal lawyer is a hot shot litigator, Randy Mastro. also a former federal prosecutor.
But the cruelest blow to Christie has to be that his boyhood hero Bruce Springsteen, also known as “The Boss”, joined what has become the nightly feature of late night comedian - satirical shows, lampooning Christie. Christie has apparently watched Springsteen in over a 100 live concerts. After years of trying to meet Springsteen in person the latter finally agreed after Hurricane Sandy. Springsteen ended his song, “Someday Governor I don’t know when this will all end/ but till then you are killing the working man whose stuck in Chris Christie’s Fort Lee New Jersey traffic jam".
And there are still the majority of pundits saying that this will not ultimately affect him if they cannot prove that he knew or initiated this punitive act.
The really sad reality is that had this bridge had been in Nevada and the Governor wouldn’t have been a Presidential candidate who would have given a damn?
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