Rupert
Murdoch talked about the race he cares most about at the race Americans
cared about Saturday. Photograph: Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez/AFP/Getty
Images
The
main business of the day on Saturday was America’s most famous horse
race. It was also a chance for Rupert Murdoch to check out the Kentucky Derby.
Murdoch,
the media boss and Republican party kingmaker, cast his view over the
GOP presidential field on Saturday and thought some mounts looked
stronger than others. In particular, Murdoch thought New Jersey governor
Chris Christie, hobbled this winter by an abuse-of-power scandal,
looked weak down the stretch.
“He’ll be a very strong,
fighting candidate in the primaries, but there will be more and more
stuff coming out, I think,” Murdoch told New York Times
reporter Jason Horowitz in a private suite at Churchill Downs in
Kentucky, as Derby Day went on below. “Not him but, you know, on his
aides. There will be more stories.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's
administration has attacked the motives of a former ally whose attorney
claims the GOP presidential hopeful knew of highly disruptive lane
closures on a New York area bridge as they were going on, contrary to
the governor's previous statements.
Mr. Christie's
office challenged the claims of his former associate,
David Wildstein,
in a public statement on Saturday. "Bottom line—David Wildstein
will do and say anything to save David Wildstein," said the message,
first reported by Politico and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie arrived on stage
Saturday during the Super Bowl Hand-Off Ceremony on Super Bowl Boulevard
in Times Square in New York.
Reuters
Mr. Wildstein's attorney
Alan Zegas
in the letter released to the Port Authority and the media on
Friday said "evidence exists…tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge" of
the lane closures while they were still going on during the week
beginning Sept. 9.
He didn't identify
the evidence to which he referred or say of what it consists. Mr.
Zegas's letter also said Mr. Wildstein could prove various statements
made by the governor about Mr. Wildstein weren't accurate.
Mr.
Wildstein personally directed the lane closures at the George
Washington Bridge from Sept. 9 to Sept. 13, causing traffic jams in Fort
Lee, N.J. that lengthened commutes and delayed emergency vehicles.
The
closures were seen by many people as political retribution against Fort
Lee's Democratic mayor, who didn't endorse Mr. Christie's re-election.
The exact motive for the lane closures has yet to be proven.
Mr.
Wildstein has since resigned as director of interstate capital projects
at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the
bridge, which is one of the busiest in the world.
Chris Christie in Fort Lee to meet Mayor Mark Sokolich. (Spencer Platt / Getty)
Christie, ex-official clash over when governor learned of bridge lane closings
New
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's office denied he knew anything ahead of
time about an operation to jam traffic on the George Washington Bridge.
NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.
By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer
NBC News
New
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and the official who ordered the closing of
lanes on the George Washington Bridge last year clashed Friday over
precisely when Christie learned about the controversial incident. In a letter to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (.pdf),
a lawyer for David Wildstein — the Port Authority official who actually
ordered the event — says "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."
In a statement Friday afternoon, Christie's
office said that rather than call Christie's behavior into question, the
letter "confirms what the Governor has said all along — he had
absolutely no prior knowledge of the lane closures before they happened
and whatever Mr. Wildstein's motivations were for closing them to begin
with."
Christie's statement goes on to say he denies "Mr.
Wildstein's lawyer's other assertions," which primarily have to do with
Wildstein's attempt to force the Port Authority to pay his legal bills.
The main disagreement appears to stem from the sequence of events.
In
his statement Friday, Christie said he didn't know about what's come to
be known as "Bridgegate" beforehand. In his Jan. 9 news conference —
the one Wildstein alludes to — he said that "I had no knowledge of this —
of the planning, the execution or anything about it — and that I first
found out about it after it was over."
Christie doubled down on
that assertion late Friday night. In a statement issued to "clear up any
lingering confusion," a spokesman said, "Governor Christie has said
each time he has been asked that he first learned about the closing of
the lanes on the George Washington Bridge from press accounts after the
instance was over."
It's that second contention that Wildstein
contradicts in his letter, saying flat-out that Christie knew about the
incident as it was jamming traffic between New York and New Jersey from
Sept. 9 to Sept. 12.
"Mr. Wildstein contests the accuracy of
various statements that the Governor made about him and he can prove the
inaccuracy of some," the letter says — although it gives no hint of
what that evidence might be.
A
new allegation claims New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sanctioned a road
closure as political payback. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports.
Wildstein's letter was first reported Friday by The New York Times and subsequently obtained by NBC News.
Christie
— who's considered a serious contender for the 2016 Republican
presidential nomination — has repeatedly denied having ordered the
closing of two of three local access lanes from Fort Lee, N.J., to the
bridge, which is one of the busiest in the world. The closing froze
traffic for four days — allegedly in retaliation over the mayor's
refusal to endorse him in the 2013 governor's race.
It's the latest piece in a puzzle that has been emerging over the past few months of Christie as a swaggering political bully. Read More Here
Just days after dismissing two top
advisers for their roles in the George Washington Bridge scandal, New
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is facing questions over the use of
Superstorm Sandy relief funds.
NEW JERSEY governor Chris Christie is being investigated over claims he used Superstorm Sandy relief funds to make tourism ads starring him and his family.
News
of the investigation couldn't come at a worse time for the
"scandal-plagued Republican", says CNN. Late last week he was forced to
sack two aides who allegedly ordered the closure of lanes on the George
Washington Bridge as part of a vendetta against a political opponent.
Christie's
office has been "paralysed" by the bridge scandal which is about to
trigger a "flurry of subpoenas", according to reports.
CNN says
the federal probe examining New Jersey's use of $25m in relief funds for
a marketing campaign to boost tourism in the state, could be even more
damaging to Christie's political ambitions than the bridge scandal.
That's because the governor's performance during and after the storm has
been "widely praised and is a fundamental part of his straight-shooting
political brand".
The New York Post understands that Christie's
deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, and his campaign manager,
Bill Stepien, are likely to be issued with subpoenas as early as today
in relation to the bridge scandal. Kelly allegedly orchestrated the lane
closures in an effort to undermine a New Jersey mayor who refused to
support Christie's re-election campaign; Stepien was "kept in the loop"
about the plan.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie hugs a homeowners who lost her home to Hurricane Sandy. Photograph: Mel Evans/AP
A special legislative panel investigating an apparent political payback scheme involving New Jersey governor Chris Christie's aides
issued 20 new subpoenas on Thursday, the day the Republican star made
his first trip since the scandal broke, to pledge that he will not be
distracted from the job of rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy.
Christie also announced the hiring of a legal team to help his
administration deal with multiple investigations into a scandal that
will not be put to rest quickly.
The governor's legal team, to be led by former federal prosecutor
Randy Mastro, will "review best practices for office operations and
information flow, and assist with document retention and production",
the administration said in a brief written statement. A spokeswoman
would not say who was paying for the team or how much it cost.
Two state legislative committees, including one also using a former
federal prosecutor; the US attorney's office in New Jersey, which
Christie headed before running for governor; and the chairman of a US
Senate committee are conducting inquiries into what happened in
September, when lanes to the George Washington bridge from the town of Fort Lee were shut for four days, causing massive traffic gridlock.
The plot was apparently hatched by Christie's aides as a political
vendetta, possibly because Fort Lee's Democratic mayor would not endorse
the Republican governor's November re-election campaign.
Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who is leading the primary legislative
probe, said the new subpoenas sought documents from 17 people and three
organisations. The recipients of the subpoenas will not be named until
the documents are served, presumably by Friday. The likely targets are
people who worked for Christie or who are or were part of his inner
circle, such as Bridget Anne Kelly, the fired aide who suggested in an
email to another Christie confidante that it was "Time for some traffic
problems in Fort Lee”. Another likely target is Bill Stepien, Christie's
two-time campaign manager who appeared to gloat over the traffic chaos. At a news conference last week,
Christie said he would continue interviewing his senior staff to
determine if there is any other information he needs to know and if he
needs to take any further action, but he did not indicate his review
would go further than that.
Christie did not address the scandal directly on Thursday, when he
made his first public appearance outside the State House in the eight
days since the lane scandal broke wide open. He went to friendly
territory – heavily Republican Ocean County – for an event initially
scheduled for 8 January that was postponed after the revelation of
emails that appear to show Kelly, formerly a top aide, ordering the lane
closures for political retribution.
New Jersey's Christie hires law firm to fight bridge scandal
By Victoria Cavaliere
NEW YORKThu Jan 16, 2014 6:49pm EST
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaks during his annual State of the State address in Trenton, New Jersey January 14, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson
(Reuters) - The administration of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has
hired a high-powered legal firm to help his office as federal
prosecutors investigate whether any laws were broken when a top aide
ordered seemingly politically motivated traffic jams.
Christie, a likely
2016 Republican White House contender, turned to a former deputy of ex
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, another Republican with presidential
aspirations, after revelations that a former aide called for "traffic
problems" at the George Washington Bridge in apparent retribution
against a local Democratic mayor.
About
20 subpoenas were issued in the case on Thursday, according to
Democratic state Assembly member John Wisniewski. They included some 17
people and three organizations, he said, but no names would be disclosed
until subpoenas are served.
He said Christie was not among those subpoenaed.
The
governor's office said it retained the law firm of Gibson, Dunn &
Crutcher LLP to help with an internal review and to cooperate with an
investigation announced last week by U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul
Fishman.
Randy Mastro who in the 1990s served as chief of staff and deputy mayor for operations to Giuliani will lead the team.
The
outside attorneys will bring a "third-party perspective to the
situation, and they will be a valuable asset as we move forward,"
Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said in the statement announcing the
law firm's hiring.
Working
for the Giuliani administration, Mastro led efforts to clean up Times
Square and rid organized crime from the city's Fulton Fish Market,
private carting industry and popular San Gennaro Festival.
In private practice since then, he frequently took on the administration of Giuliani's successor, Michael Bloomberg.
Gibson Dunn's partners charge $980 an hour on average, according to a survey published by the National Law Journal.
![Chris Christie rocked by Superstorm Sandy relief scandal]({"default":"http://db2.stb.s-msn.com/i/5e/e2b3821426c25c1eb1ef1a64ed70d4/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg"})
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