Scathing bridge complaint reached Christie’s staff (updated)

[ProSense]

Scathing bridge complaint reached Christie’s staff

By Meredith Clark

<...>

The complaint came from Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority, who sent a scathing email to Bill Baroni, the Port Authority’s deputy executive director, on Sept. 13. Foye called the lane closures a “hasty and ill-advised decision” that was likely illegal. A trove of documents released Friday by the New Jersey Legislature showed that Baroni forwarded Foye’s complaint to Regina Egea, a senior Christie aide and the governor’s pick to be his new chief of staff, just three hours after it was originally sent.

“This puts Foye’s complaint right into the governor’s office,” Tom Hester, spokesman for New Jersey Assembly Democrats, told NBC News’ Michael Isikoff Saturday. Hester said the revelation makes Egea a likely candidate for subpoena by the legislative committee investigating the plot...the email raises questions about what Egea told Christie when the governor assembled his top aides to ask what they knew about the bridge plot. There is no evidence that Egea responded to the email, but the message demonstrates that people within the governor’s office were notified that the lane closures were causing serious political headaches.

<...>

The Democratic Speaker-elect of the New Jersey Assembly, Vincent Prieto, said Saturday that he plans to call the Assembly into special session Thursday to reauthorize subpoena power in the bridge investigation.

“The documents released this week related to the George Washington Bridge situation clearly show the need for a continued thorough investigation by the New Jersey General Assembly. Many questions remain unanswered about this threat to public safety and abuse of power,” he said in a statement.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/bridge-scandal-christie-aide-email

Updated to add: An image of the e-mail from Bill Baroni to Regina Egea is posted here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/11/1268918/-Steve-Kornacki-says-this-Email-strains-Credibility

So are we to believe that Christie's Authorities Director & soon-to-be chief of staff never in 4 months told him about this??
— @SteveKornacki

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024314810
Most of Christie's inner circle likely knew

Bridget Kelly http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024306506

Michael Drewniak http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024313002

David Samson and David Wildstein http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024311824

Chief of Staff Kevin O-Dowd and Chief Legal Counsel Charlie McKenna
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024307617

Nicole Crifo http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024307617#post8

Christie...clueless:

“The fact is, I didn’t know Fort Lee got three dedicated lanes until all this stuff happened, and I think we should review that entire policy because I don’t know why Fort Lee needs three dedicated lanes to tell you the truth,” Christie said at the time. “And I didn’t even know it until this whole, you know, happening went about.”

http://www.northjersey.com/news/christie_kelly_bridge_lane_closures_emails.html?page=all

CHRISTIE: I didn`t know Fort Lee got three dedicated lanes until all this stuff happened. I sat in that traffic before I was governor, the fact that one town has three lanes dedicated to it? That kind of gets me sauced.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/54031801/ns/msnbc-all_in_with_chris_hayes/

That's a about 3:50 into the first tape posted here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024303805

That was before he turned into Christie "the victim" of a lying staff. He wasn't pissed about the dangerous situation created by the closures, he was "sauced" that Fort Lee had "three lanes dedicated to it." (lie)

Bridge Scandal Documents Indicate Effort to Hide Political Motive
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024312727

Patrick Foye: Hero (More Bridgegate Stuff)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024314942

[grasswire]

1. oh good, they will reauthorize subpoena power

There was some concern that Christie admin would just try to run out the clock on that.

[ProSense]

2. That was because

"There was some concern that Christie admin would just try to run out the clock on that."

...Prieto seemed hesistant to commit to the extension. Via Charles Pierce's blog:

Turns out, though, that Christie was running out the clock in more ways than one. In New Jersey, a legislature's subpoena power into a particular investigation ends when the legislative session ends. In this case, that's next week: January 14. That might not mean much, because the assembly (where the investigation is taking place) is in Democratic hands in the current (ending) session, and will remain in Democratic hands in the next one, so one might assume the new legislature would renew the probe. But here's the wrinkle: The speakership of the assembly is changing hands, from Sheila Oliver, who has a rocky history with Christie, to Vincent Prieto, who has no such history. So maybe there was a chance that Prieto wasn't going to continue the investigation. Indeed, he'd refused to say one way or the other for a long time as the scandal percolated. But once these damning emails came out, Prieto had little choice, and sure enough, he finally said Wednesday that the investigation will continue into the next session.

And there is this:

U.S. Attorney to Open Inquiry Into Bridge Scandal
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024303998

[ProSense]

3. Kick! n/t

[Whisp]

4. k&r

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. Importance: HIGH

Essentially, Ms. Egea received an email from Bill Baroni that simply noted its own high importance and included no additional text, but merely forwarded Foye's email. In that email (which is to say, Foye's), which is so angry and terse that it is practically on fire, Foye suggests that the whole thing violates "Federal law" and that he will by God get to the bottom of this "wrongful subversion" of the Port Authority process!

So, let's review: Ms. Egea - then being groomed to be Christie's chief-of-staff - gets an email saying that there has been a violation of Federal Law, an email sent by the EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the god-fucking-damn Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It is marked Importance: High. It is forwarded without comment by a former state Senator and Christie's guy at Port Authority.

But she doesn't read it?

Or she reads it, and doesn't advise Christie of it?

Come on, now. Nobody in their right mind would believe that. She went to Christie with that email on the goddamn doublequick, and everybody knows it.

[ProSense]

6. Exactly. That

"Essentially, Ms. Egea received an email from Bill Baroni that simply noted its own high importance and included no additional text, but merely forwarded Foye's email. "

...was the first thing that caught my attention when I included the link to the e-mail.

Like the e-mail between from Kelly to Wildstein, it suggests that there were other communications, prior knowledge.

[countryjake]

7. Great big KICK!

[George II]

8. I can't believe these guys who keep moaning that Fort Lee has "three lanes dedicated to it"....

....those lanes are dedicated to the people who use the bridge, not Fort Lee! Where do they think the bridge is located, Hoboken?

EVERY lane is "dedicated to Fort Lee", they all pass THROUGH Fort Lee.

For three years I lived about 3/10th of a mile from those lanes, and they were mostly used by people stuck in backups on the main lanes who took a side exit onto local streets maybe 1/4 mile earlier, then the same drivers slid back onto the bridge approach using those "three lanes dedicated to it".

Besides, those lanes have been there for at least 40 years with no complaints or need for a "traffic study".