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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChris Christie bridge investigation: Federal prosecutors issue new subpoenas.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/federal-prosecutors-file-new-subpoena-investigating-chris-christie-bridge-scandal/U.S. federal prosecutors have issued a new subpoena into whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christies office had tried to extract political support from the Democratic mayor of Jersey City, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The source requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
A subpoena issued this week to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey seeks records from a broad range of former authority officials regarding their interactions with Jersey City, the Journal said.
The Port Authority, Christies office and the U.S. attorneys office declined to comment.
The Port Authority, which runs the George Washington Bridge, is at the center of the so-called Bridgegate scandal, in which four days of lane closures in Fort Lee in 2013 caused massive snarls delaying school buses, ambulances and commuters on the New Jersey-Manhattan crossing.
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http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2015/03/19/new-subpoena-seeks-evidence-christie-administration-retaliated-against-mayor/
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A person familiar with the latest subpoena to the Port Authority said it was a broad request covering correspondence among aides and allies of Mr. Christie, including Messrs. Wildstein and Baroni, that touched on any efforts to penalize Mr. Fulop or Jersey City over his failure to endorse Mr. Christie.
A spokesman for Mr. Christie declined to comment on the new subpoena. In the past, Mr. Christie has downplayed friction with Mr. Fulop, and said his administration is committed to working with Jersey City.
In January, The Wall Street Journal reported federal prosecutors had subpoenaed Mr. Christies re-election campaign for documents related to the canceled meetings, according to people familiar with the matter.
The latest subpoena comes amid indications U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman could be close to wrapping up all or part of his probes into the lane closures and allegations of malfeasance within the Port Authority.
malaise
(269,257 posts)Samson will soon be singing like a canary.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)They'll sing like canaries. I hope this brings the monster down once and for all.
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)Cha
(297,935 posts)Hoppy
(3,595 posts)nikto
(3,284 posts)Never forget...
Shit is slippery.
Logical
(22,457 posts)nikto
(3,284 posts)ftfy
Laxman
(2,419 posts)hopefully the noose is getting tighter. I'll add this to the Crime Digest if you don't mind.
Hey, how did that Wildstein....I mean that guy I don't know get into the State House again?
From right to left in this picture-David Wildstein, Bill Baroni, Chris Christie, David Sampson, Jeff Chiesa, and Michelle Brown (who is either checking for a hidden microphone or a price tag on the back of a portrait of some old governor). This is on the third floor of the state house rotunda. I guess that story about not really knowing Wildstein is starting to fall apart-huh.
pnwmom
(109,021 posts)And of course I don't mind your posting this in your Crime Digest.
Laxman
(2,419 posts)Michelle Brown is doing in that picture? That's seems really odd doesn't it?
pnwmom
(109,021 posts)Laxman
(2,419 posts)the picture was taken in August 2011.
Wildstein had a meeting with Bridget Kelly then a meeting with Christie.
The picture above them is former Governor Wally Edge-which was Wildstein's alias when he was a blogger.
Wildstein also had a Sunday afternoon meeting with Christie in Mendham at the Black Horse on Main Street well after the bridge caper. Christie goes to church right across the street at St. Joe's.
pnwmom
(109,021 posts)malaise
(269,257 posts)The centre never holds
Cha
(297,935 posts)bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Cha
(297,935 posts)Vinca
(50,323 posts)I hope to see him in a perp walk someday.
Laxman
(2,419 posts)Don't quite know what it means but....
Fort Lee council members were interviewed in recent weeks as part of the continuing federal investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closures, while the U.S. Attorneys Office issued another subpoena to the Port Authority this week, sources familiar with the events confirmed on Friday.
Investigators had previously interviewed other Fort Lee officials, but this was the first time they spoke with council members more than a year after news of the closings broke. It was unclear if the latest moves are the last steps of an exhaustive investigation that has drawn in scores of potential witnesses or an indication that prosecutors are still in search of evidence that would solidify a criminal case.
Two council members in Fort Lee described the interviews as informal and brief and said they had not been subpoenaed.
Councilman Armand Pohan said that he and most of his colleagues were interviewed individually at Fort Lee Borough Hall two to three weeks ago and that his meeting lasted 10 to 15 minutes. He would not discuss what was asked but said, You should judge from the brevity of the interview it was not very consequential.
Councilman Joseph Cervieri, who was not available when the other officials were questioned, was subsequently interviewed at the West Orange office of Tim Donohue, the boroughs special counsel.
They just wanted to know what I knew, Cervieri said. It was a very quick conversation. [The interviewer] was trying to find out who knew what.
They were asking questions about was there anything different? Was there any interaction with the Port Authority? Cervieri said. For me, it was no, no, no, no, no.
The U.S. Attorneys Office is investigating the September 2013 lane closings at the bridge, which gridlocked traffic in Fort Lee on four days. One of the lines of inquiry is focusing on whether the closings were carried out to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who would not endorse Governor Christie, a Republican, during the governors reelection campaign.
After the controversy erupted, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, a Democrat, said meetings with Christie administration officials and then-Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni were suddenly canceled after he, too, made it clear that he would not endorse Christie.
Emails showed that a Christie aide, Bridget Anne Kelly, and a Christie appointee at the Port Authority, David Wildstein, were involved in the lane closings, but the governor has denied that he knew about them before they happened. A state legislative panel conducting its own investigation said in December it found no conclusive evidence that the governor was involved.
The U.S. attorneys subpoena to the Port Authority requested information related to planned meetings between Port Authority officials and Fulop that were abruptly canceled, two sources familiar with the matter said. It also requested E-ZPass records dating to 2010 for Baroni, Wildstein and Kelly, the sources said.
Read the rest here: http://www.northjersey.com/news/fort-lee-council-members-interviewed-by-feds-about-gwb-lane-closures-1.1292938