Yes! N.J. Senate Majority Leader Says Criminal Charges May Come In Bridge Scandal

[warrior1]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nj-dem-criminal-charges-possible-bridge



New Jersey State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D) said Wednesday she thinks criminal charges may come in the growing scandal over last September's lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.

Weinberg's comments came after TPM and other news outlets obtained emails and other communications that showed one of Gov. Chris Christie's (R) closest aides was involved in the discussions of the lane closures weeks before they took place.

Democrats, including Weinberg, have alleged that the closures were ordered in an effort to snarl traffic in nearby Fort Lee, N.J. in retaliation for the Democratic mayor there not endorsing Christie's reelection bid.

When asked if she thought criminal charges were possible based on the new revelations, Weinberg replied: "Yes."


snip

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Should be a back up

To federal charges. I know you are hot on this! Interstate Commerce.

I think that's what Patrick Foye was getting at it . . . and -

This study? It doesn't exist. If it doesn't - shouldn't the NY P.A. team have access to it?

[okaawhatever]

6. Wonder if any money was spent on the bogus study? nt

[JustAnotherGen]

7. I don't think we are going to find any money spent on it

And if there was money - they didn't have the authority

[okaawhatever]

8. that's what I was wondering. If they either moved money around to look like they had asked for a

study after they were caught. They should have realized if they were going to use a study as an excuse they'd have to have some documents proving the study existed. That's what I wondered.

[louis-t]

11. One report said $60,000 was approved by Christie

for the 'study'.

[okaawhatever]

12. Hmmm...I wonder if that qualifies for fraud. I doubt it because if none had been spent there wasn't

fraud or intent to defraud. Christie could claim they were actually going to do the study one day. I hope someone spent a little bit of that money because if the survey didn't take place it's fraud.

[louis-t]

13. Found it. In email from Wildstein to Kelly.

P. 4 at the bottom.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/01/09/nyregion/09christie-email-documents.html?action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article

[okaawhatever]

14. thanks for that. Even if the money isn't fraud I wonder if Christie approving it for Springfield

makes me wonder if that's one of the ways he rewards his supporters. I see if was to get certified as renewable under some green program. I wonder if there was a political nature to who was awarded money for these types of things.

[louis-t]

16. I'm wondering if the 'approval of funds'

wasn't something done after the fact to disguise the retaliatory action.

[pnwmom]

27. What would that study have to do with Fort Lee and the GW bridge?

They're not exactly neighbors.

[George II]

19. That was for a traffic study in Morris County, almost 20 miles from the bridge

[Laxman]

38. Actually Union County, but....

still not near the GW Bridge. I don't think that grant had anything to do with this.

[Botany]

23. The study of traffic patterns cover story is bogus

How do you study traffic patterns when you have no traffic.

Somebody might gonna cut a deal to save their ass and then the will sing like a little bird
and @ that point Christie will be in deep shit. (I think that is the case but I might be wrong :rofl

[Ligyron]

2. Hmmm, this IS starting to look interesting.

[herding cats]

3. MJ is reporting Baroni and Wildstein both have retained criminal defense attorneys

At the bottom of this paragraph you'll find where they mention it.

Why is this political? Soon after the traffic jam, rumors emerged that the Port Authority closed the bridge lanes as political retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who endorsed Gov. Chris Christie's opponent in the 2013 gubernatorial campaign. As news outlets and New Jersey Democrats dug deeper into the circumstances of the bridge incident, they eventually connected the lane closures to two Port Authority officials with close ties to Christie: Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the agency, and David Wildstein, its director of interstate capital projects. Baroni and Wildstein have since resigned, and both men have retained criminal defense attorneys.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/chris-christie-bridge-traffic-jam-emails

[bigdarryl]

4. Don't gloat just yet NJ politics is corrupted on both sides the democrats control the legislature

But I don't trust them either.They might make some kind of a deal with the Christie Administration on having someone in his cabinet take the fall for everything in this scandal and making some kind of statement saying the Governor wasn't involved at all. Even though he might have been. That's NJ politics for you

[JustAnotherGen]

9. I agree

But Foye (Cuomo's guy) at the P.A. - he is pissed. I'd like to see this out of our hands and in the hands of the Feds. What say you?

[bigdarryl]

43. I'm not confident Obama will direct Holder in this because

I honestly think Obama likes Christie as a friend.You got to remember he didnt even come to NJ to campaign for the democrat nominee for Governor

[JustAnotherGen]

49. That I remember

But I think with VA in the mix and Christie 'unbeatable' - he did what was the politically expedient thing to do. Me? I know I did the absolute best I could to get Buono elected.

Funny some guy who had called into Ask The Governor called into Gearhart this morning and said look - the guy lied to me. And this isn't the first time.

Maybe now people will mea culpa over not holding his feet to the fire on the 'special election'.

Most out of state and a shitload of people IN state were not (deliberately ignorant perhaps?) aware that the NJ Legislature in 1924 actually wrote into law and made possible for Christie to have held the election on the same day as the Governor's race. He just chose to not have folk just go press "D" at the polls. . . because he would have lost from the sheer volume created by Booker's 'star power'.

[George II]

5. Hopefully there will be hundreds of civil suits filed, too.

[randr]

10. Hope there is enough popcorn

How long before we hear an admission of where the buck stops?

[George II]

39. This is Christie, the buck already stopped about 2 levels below him.

[grahamhgreen]

68. Enough popcorn for Christie? lol

[randr]

70. I am about to expode

[TRoN33]

15. Mark my words...

If the scandal investigation isn't a success but without doubt New Jersey people would scream for the recall election against Christie.

[neffernin]

17. In an informed and smart world

we can all wish this happens.

[tabbycat31]

25. A recall would be next to impossible

IIRC you need 25% of all REGISTERED VOTERS to sign the recall petitions. 2013's turnout was 37% give or take.

[Tx4obama]

46. The page on NJ state website to the recall election petition is GONE...

... if you click on the recall election petition link on the link below says:

Page Not Found

The page you have requested cannot be displayed because it does not exist, has been moved, or the server has been instructed not to let you view it.

http://nj.gov/state/elections/candidate-recall-election-process.html
http://nj.gov/state/elections/recall-election/recall-election-petition-090109.pdf

[Iliyah]

18. GOP will cry "WITCH HUNT"

and corporate media will follow because y'all see only non-gops are evil.

[FrodosPet]

31. TeaFreepers hate Christie as much or more than progressives

They consider him a RINO.

"Everybody Hates Chris(tie)"

[Demo_Chris]

20. Folks, no offense, but to me this sounds as ludicrous as the people screaming BENGHAZI...

It's a traffic study. It's not bringing down the Governor or impacting a thing, and trying to stretch it into something it's not is just a bit silly.

In my opinion.

[LiberalEsto]

22. Except that it was done purposely, with malice, as retribution vs. a political opponent nt

[Demo_Chris]

28. So? Think this through...

If it was a Democrat that did this you wouldn't care. If it was Obama or someone like that you'd praise him for playing tough politics. I know I would. Hell, I would be fucking THRILLED if Obama actually did something like this rather than playing the Great Appeaser, and I suspect you would as well.

You think GOP voters are any different? It's not lying us into a war (which didn't cost Bush the election) or Benghazi (which didn't seem to hurt Obama even though it had just happened), it's a politically motivated traffic study. Christie WANTS the media to bring it up.

[LiberalEsto]

32. You presume to be able to read my mind

If it were a Democrat, I WOULD care. It's wrong, no matter who does it.

FYI I was a newspaper reporter in NJ for many years.

[OmahaBlueDog]

33. Getting into criminal charges over a traffic snarl will be perceived by voters as petty

I think members of both parties have better things to do.

[yellowcanine]

53. So deliberately blocking 2 traffic lanes for 4 days as a political vendetta is not a crime?

If an private individual did it it would be, so why is it not when a governor's aide does it?

[OmahaBlueDog]

62. Is it a crime? Probably. Does it rise to the level of impeachable? Probably not.

It reflects badly on Christie, but it won't get him removed from office.

[yellowcanine]

64. Hmm. Criminal charges for the aides who ordered it is not impeachment.

Moved the goal posts a bit, don't you think?

[OmahaBlueDog]

72. Nope. Aides are expendable.

Poindexted, McFarlane, and North all took the fall. Reagan was never impeached.

[yellowcanine]

74. Right. But you turned the discussion about criminal charges into impeachment.

So I am really not sure what your point is here.

[OmahaBlueDog]

75. I'm saying he won't be impeached. An aide or two will be sacrificed.

Let's see where all of this is in March.

[yellowcanine]

77. Got that part. Your original comment was questioning the wisdom of a criminal investigation

-of apparent crimes. Strange.

[OmahaBlueDog]

78. True. It's NJs justice system. Personally, I think the courts have better things to do.

Again -- let's see where all of this is in March.

[Demo_Chris]

58. That's my read on it as well...

The Social Conservative faction within the GOP definitely hates Christie with a hot HOT hate, so I suppose there is some possibility that this will have some long term impact, but at this point I continue to see it as a bit silly.

But time will tell. I've been wrong before.

[yellowcanine]

52. No evidence of a traffic study. So it is politically motivated blocking traffic lanes for 4 days.

No study, no notification of police, fire depts and the public with signs and through media as well as a dedicated radio channel. All of these major commuter routes have elaborate plans in place for scheduled lane closures weeks in advance (usually at least a month in the DC area, not sure about NY Port Authority but this is one of the busiest bridges in the world. Puts things in a little different light, more along the lines of political dirty tricks and thuggery - note, it was not the mayor of Fort Lee who suffered because of this - it was ordinary folks just trying to get to work, school, appointments, etc. This is abuse of power and if Christie ordered it he should be impeached. It is one thing to punish a political opponent. And you are dead wrong about the fall out from this. Christie has already messed up by making light of it and not getting to the bottom of it immediately. As for GOP voters - my bet is that Christie just lost nearly every GOP voter who has a tough urban commute.

[whopis01]

54. Speak for yourself

I would never praise any official for doing something like this. I don't care if they are republican, democratic, my best friend or my brother.

To take out government and degenerate it to this point where it is nothing more than a team sport filled with stupid frat-boy pranks is at best short sighted.

Who in their right mind would praise an abuse of power just because it is their candidate who is abusing it?

These people are supposed to be elected officials, not cult leaders.

[Arugula Latte]

67. Yes -- this was terrible -- affecting thousands of thousands of lives for days and causing

untold stress, aggravation, economic damage, and delaying emergency response. This is not some petty, minor traffic snarl where it takes you ten minutes to get past roadwork or something.

[Bandit]

24. Oh really! Who produced such a study anyway?

I know of no one that has seen such a "study"... Who has the "study" so we can conclude there was no malice involved.

[Demo_Chris]

26. I am not disputing any of that...

Look, if you want to believe that this is some super serious SCANDAL knock yourself out. You can believe whatever you like, and eventually history will show that one of us is correct. I happen to believe that basically no one outside a handful of political junkies will ever give a damn, and that's even IF everything our party is alleging turns out to be correct. Christie can come out tomorrow and ANNOUNCE that he deliberately trashed traffic just to exact vengeance against a political foe and the American people would shrug and say "Well yeah, I'd do that to. I wish my representative wasn't such a pussy."

But that's just my opinion. You could be correct. Time will tell.

[justiceischeap]

29. Maybe the missing four-year-old girls parents who couldn't get

enough police to them to search for the girl (who was eventually found) quickly enough. Or the EMTs or firefighter's that couldn't get through the traffic or the woman who couldn't get to the hospital while her husband had major surgery... or, or, or.

Think about it, for political retribution he played with people's lives. Same as Bush. It may not be as grand a scale but it's the same damn thing.

[OmahaBlueDog]

34. If you could show a direct correlation to loss of life or injury, you might have a point

Absent that, this strikes me as a non-event.

[justiceischeap]

35. In another thread about this, they're talking about a 91 year old woman

who died on route to the hospital. The ambulance was delayed by 4 minutes. Did those lost 4 minutes lead to this woman's death? I don't know, only a doctor could tell you but that's pretty bothersome in and of itself.

[rpannier]

48. The death of the 91 year old woman will be difficult to overcome

But, a few more severe weather problems where he looks good or something else that happens in the next 3 years that fall his way and he may be fine.
If this drags out the way Watergate did, with new revelations and him stonewalling... he's likely finished.
It's all going to depend on what happens next and after that...

[OmahaBlueDog]

50. People are going to look at that and say "Yeah, but she was 91"

No money changed hands in this escapade. No one stood to gain anything (except the intangible "sense of revenge&quot No one's re-election was prevented. No violence took place. Some traffic was snarled.

Worst case: some aides will take the fall. Christie will survive this just fine, and this will be forgotten in 6 months.

[yellowcanine]

56. "this will be forgotten in 6 months." Wishful thinking. This will drag Christie down.

Oh yes, aides will leave, no doubt, but then there is the question of why Christie dragged his feet on investigating this.....it took the emails to break this open.

[OmahaBlueDog]

61. Wishful thinking, IMO

We'll both see in 6 months, I suppose.

[Demo_Chris]

60. You think the death of a 91 year old woman...

Which might or might not have even HAPPENED, let alone been connected to this if it did, will have a greater election impact that the potentially preventable death of a US Ambassador and staff a few weeks prior to the last election?

Note that I am not drawing a parallel between these two incidents other than the one I have specified, meaning: as media events. You really think that three years from now people in other states completely unaffected by any traffic snarls are still going to give a shit about an allegedly improper traffic study conducted four or five years previously? Seriously, how plausible does that sound to you? I think we'd get more mileage out of an image of Christie parking improperly in a Handicap space.

[yellowcanine]

65. False comparison. This was (apparently) specifically ordered by an aide.

So the aide is a perp. The crime was abuse of power and possibly reckless endangerment. Snarled traffic can result in serious injury and death, even if it did not in this case. Note: the "improper traffic study" was a cover story. That is clear now even if it wasn't before. No traffic study has turned up, in any case, unless the Onion has put one together (not a bad idea). Last I looked the perps in Benghazi were jihadists. Not really comparable, even as a media event. Anyway, it won't be Democrats running the ads. It will be Republicans - the nastiest ads come out during the primaries and you can be sure this will get used extensively, with or without the 91 yr old woman. Besides, it isn't over yet. There is still the question of "What did he know and when did he know it?" Don't forget, that question regarding a "third rate burglary" (under remarkably similar circumstances) took down a President. There clearly was a cover-up here. Only question is if Christie was involved in it. Right now I would say maybe not, but at the least he certainly did not turn over many rocks to try to find out what happened. At least not that we know about.

[Demo_Chris]

66. We will see. It is better that Christie lose now. We don't want to face him in '16...

We definitely do not want to run Clinton against Christie.

[rpannier]

73. As I said

It depends on what happens next and after that and so on... (RIF)

[yellowcanine]

55. If there was no injury it was just dumb luck. "Reckless endangerment" comes to mind.

And that is not a stretch. More accidents, delayed emergency response, etc. A "traffic jam" is not a benign event. I am guessing the backups were measured in miles in this case - for 4 days. First day of school so there were school buses, as well as emergency vehicles delayed because of this. Police had to be taken off regular patrol to direct traffic, etc.

[tblue37]

45. Or the elderly woman who died. nt

[msanthrope]

30. Um...you are wrong. The worst emails haven't come out yet, nor the emails from the coverup....

specifically suggesting the use of the 20 miles-away traffic study as the reason for the bridge closures.

And Mr. Christie thought he had the Democrats cowed.....

[BlueEye]

42. I agree the whole thing seems a bit petulant.

But this is politics in the 21st Century. Like it or not, the Rethugs have no shame in turning small-ish things into poltical weapons. The Democrats need to give them a taste of their own medicine and badger Christie with this until it's been beaten to death. If the NJ Legislature can squeeze some criminal charges, that's fantastic, as it will be fodder against Christie in 2016.

[morningfog]

57. Wishful thinking on your part. A woman died.

[imthevicar]

21. One Thing in Jersey We hate More than anything else...

Traffic!

[Cha]

36. And, it looks like your fucking governor/and/or his inside staff

deliberately caused more of it for Revenge on the Democratic Mayor, Mark Sokolich, of Fort Lee, NJ.

[imthevicar]

79. This is Just a distraction.

The Senate Just Passed Fast track legislation for the T.P.P. Great POTUS we have...

[bucolic_frolic]

37. Don't count your chickens ...

but do be encouraged, because the very least that cannot be dismissed

is that integrity is imparted from the top down, with penalties and consequences,

and that does not mean lax oversight

or "agents without portfolio"

or plausible deniability

or wink wink "see if you can get away with it"

or "don't tell me".

This is serious stuff with serious political consequences.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

40. Fuck them!! They need to stand by their criminal asshole governor! That's who they supported! Own it

I will never forgive these dumb-a$$$$$ Jersey Democrats for supporting this corrupt, fat idiot. Never! They deserve everything they get! NOW they wanna act big and bad and tough?? Forget that noise! They abandoned their own candidate for this jerk! They need to own up to it and stand by their crook!

[bucolic_frolic]

41. Bridgegazi

This is as big a political gift as

Mark Foley Congressional Aid Scandal

Sarah Palin VP Candidate

Mitt Romney 47% Speech

U.S. Rep. Todd Akin "Legitimate Rape" comments

Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock's rape comments

This is a gift, a scandal that promises to be lingering, with
dripping headlines for months that damage political integrity
and competence and show a mean-spirited and perhaps lying
side

A copper bottom scandal!

[DallasNE]

44. What is the Difference Between Chris Christie And Richard Nixon?

About 200 pounds.

[rpannier]

47. Disagree

Nixon proposed a base living wage for the poor
Nixon had a National Health Care plan
Nixon signed an executive order creating the EPA in 1970
Nixon signed the Clean Air Act
Nixon appointed the first Native American to the Bureau of Indian Affairs

Christie is not in Nixon's league. Christie is a zillion times worse because in all areas of his politics he sucks

[DallasNE]

63. It Was A Joke

To tie Christie's behavior to that of Nixon.

[workinclasszero]

51. A woman DIED because the ambulance coming to possibly save her

was held up in Governor bully boy's traffic jam!



Chris Christie bridge scandal: Traffic delay slowed response to patient

11:52 p.m. CST, January 8, 2014

In September, according to a report from the Bergen Record, paramedics trying to reach an unconscious 91-year-old woman in Fort Lee, N.J., got stuck in a traffic jam that had apparently been created by associates for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as retaliation against a Democratic mayor.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-chris-christie-bridge-scandal-20140108,0,4169085.story

There may be criminal charges?

[grahamhgreen]

69. Negligent homicide?

[cinnabonbon]

59. GOOD. n/t

[vkkv]

71. Why would the HEAD OF THE PORT AUTHORITY even CONSIDER such a STUPID request by a ChristyCream aide?

Why would the HEAD OF THE PORT AUTHORITY even CONSIDER such a STUPID request by a ChristyCream aide?

Answer - He knew it came from ChristyCream himself.

[valerief]

76. So will Fox cover Bridgeghazi 24/7 then? Or at all? nt