Bridge Over Big Fat Ego

[NeonLX]

To think, that shitty governor is in the same stadium as "our" shitty governor.

I really didn't need a reason to hate pro-sports any more than I already do, but son of a bitch, I do now.

[seemslikeadream]

Former Christie Ally David Wildstein Set to Plead Guilty
by David Voreacos
2:28 PM CDT
April 29, 2015

David Wildstein, former director of Interstate Capital Projects for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, listens during a hearing at the State Assembly in Trenton, New Jersey, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014. Wildstein, the appointee of Governor Chris Christie at the center of a controversy over lane closures in Fort Lee, invoked his right to remain silent at a legislative hearing.
Photographer: Emile Wamsteker/Bloomberg

David Wildstein, a former ally of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, is set to plead guilty, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, suggesting he may be cooperating with prosecutors probing traffic jams he ordered near the George Washington Bridge.
Wildstein is scheduled to appear as early as Friday in federal court in Newark, where grand jurors heard testimony in secret for months about gridlock over four mornings in Fort Lee, New Jersey, according to the person, who requested anonymity because the matter isn’t public. The plea was originally scheduled for Thursday, the person said. The specific charges were unclear.
A plea by Wildstein, who was a top appointee at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, would be the first conviction for U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in an investigation of the September 2013 lane closures. The scandal has hurt Christie’s popularity as the Republican weighs a run for the White House and tests his tough-talking image with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Christie denies knowledge of a plot to close two of the three local-access lanes to the world’s busiest bridge, which is run by the Port Authority. If Wildstein pleads guilty and cooperates with prosecutors, he could give them an inside view of how the plot unfolded.
‘Evidence Exists’
Fishman spokesman Matthew Reilly declined to comment. Wildstein’s lawyer, Alan Zegas, didn’t immediately return phone and e-mail messages seeking comment on the scheduled plea. Zegas has said “evidence exists” that Christie knew of the traffic jams at the time.
Once a national Republican star, Christie has tried to move past a lagging state economy and criminal and legislative probes of the scandal. An April 20 poll by Quinnipiac University found 56 percent of New Jersey voters disapprove of his performance while 38 percent gave him good marks, his lowest rating since taking office in January 2010.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday in New Brunswick, Christie reiterated what he said at a news conference Jan. 9, 2014, when he said he had no advance knowledge of the lane closures.
“I don’t expect that anything’s going to be different than what I said on Jan. 9,” Christie said. “But I can’t speculate as to what may happen or not happen. We’ll see. Whenever anything does occur, we’ll react to it. But I know what the truth is, so I’m not the least bit concerned about it.”
Christie said he won’t let the investigation affect “his political future or ability to get things done in the state.”
Cooperation
Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor and former federal prosecutor, said if Wildstein pleads guilty, he is likely to help the government.
“In complex investigations, an early guilty plea by someone who’s implicated is often entered as part of a cooperation agreement,” said Richman. “One of the things to look for is the extent to which his guilty plea implicates others, either explicitly or by implication.”
The scandal burst into view in January 2014 with the release of an e-mail that Bridget Kelly, a former Christie deputy chief of staff, sent to Wildstein on Aug. 13, 2013, almost a month before the unannounced lane closures.
“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Kelly wrote. “Got it,” replied Wildstein, a former interstate capital projects director at the Port Authority. He ordered the lane closures and monitored their progress at the bridge on the first day.
Paralyzed
The closures paralyzed traffic in Fort Lee, delayed emergency crews and caused widespread exasperation during the first week of the school year. Mayor Mark Sokolich repeatedly sought an explanation from Bill Baroni, a former deputy executive director at the Port Authority who ignored his pleas for help. Sokolich said he was being punished, and he didn’t know why.
Wildstein and Kelly monitored the mayor’s reaction until the shutdown ended early on the fifth day. Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye, an appointee of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, ordered the lanes reopened in an e-mail that said state and federal laws may have been broken.
Baroni and Wildstein, who both said the lane closures were part of a traffic study, resigned in December 2013 as that explanation seemed more implausible amid an investigation by state lawmakers. When the Kelly e-mail surfaced in January 2014, Christie fired her and removed Bill Stepien as a political adviser.
Blindsided
Christie said he was blindsided by his aides, and he had no knowledge of the plot -- a viewpoint affirmed by a law firm he commissioned to explore the traffic jams.
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP and its lead lawyer, Randy Mastro, blamed the plot on Kelly and Wildstein, saying in a March 2014 report that the pair acted for an undetermined “ulterior motive” in punishing Sokolich.
At a dinner in early December 2013, Wildstein told Christie’s former press secretary, Michael Drewniak, that he discussed the lane closings with the governor during a ceremony marking the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the report.
“Wildstein said this as he reiterated that the lane realignment was his idea and a legitimate traffic study, and he never admitted or even suggested to Drewniak that he or anyone else had any ulterior motive,” Gibson Dunn reported.
Exchange
The exchange with Wildstein is a “reference that the governor does not recall and, even if actually made, would not have registered with the governor in any event because he knew nothing about this decision in advance and would not have considered another traffic issue at one of the bridges or tunnels to be memorable,” the report states.
Mastro’s firm charged taxpayers $7.4 million for its work. Like lawmakers, Mastro’s firm wasn’t able to question Samson, Kelly, Wildstein, Baroni or Stepien.
State lawmakers spent almost a year trying to figure out what the governor and members of his administration knew and when, issuing dozens of subpoenas and holding hearings that gripped the state capital of Trenton.
Their report last December also pinned blame on Kelly and Wildstein, while saying some key questions remained outstanding, including why Kelly sent Wildstein her “traffic problems” e-mail. It asked whether they acted on their own or with the knowledge and approval of anyone else.
Punitive Measure
“The evidence clearly suggests that the lane closures were intended as a punitive measure directed against Mayor Sokolich,” stated the report by the law firm Jenner & Block LLP. “What the committee cannot say for certain is whether the closures were intended as retribution for the mayor’s failure to endorse Governor Christie or some other, unknown reason.”
They acted with “perceived impunity” in an environment at the governor’s office and the Port Authority, in which they felt empowered to act with “little regard for public safety risks or the steadily mounting public frustration,” according to the report.
Christie’s office “responded very slowly and passively to mounting indications that serious harms had been inflicted on thousands of New Jersey motorists for political rather than legitimate policy reasons,” according to the report.
Samson
Fishman has also been investigating the role of former Port Authority Chairman David Samson in the lane closures. He’s also looking at weekly flights that United Continental Holdings Inc. offered between Newark Liberty International Airport and Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from a house in Aiken that Samson’s wife owns.
Known to Samson and others as the “chairman’s flight,” it left Thursday afternoons and returned Monday mornings, running from September 2012 to April 2014.
It ended days after Samson left the authority. Prosecutors also examined several instances in which Samson may have used his post to benefit clients of his law firm.
Fishman’s office also interviewed Dawn Zimmer, the Democratic mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, about her claims that Christie’s administration threatened to withhold Superstorm Sandy aid if she didn’t back a redevelopment project involving Samson’s law firm, Wolff & Samson PC. The firm represented a developer seeking to build an office tower in Hoboken.

[seemslikeadream]

Plea and Indictments in Bridge Closings
David Wildstein, a former official at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, pleaded guilty this morning for his role in the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closings.

Bridget Anne Kelly, former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, and another former Port Authority official, Bill Baroni, are expected to be indicted.

The indictment and plea touch members of Mr. Christie’s inner circle in a scandal that has clouded the governor’s presidential bid.

[seemslikeadream]

United Airlines Chief Canned As Probe of Bridgegate Crony Heats Up

ByBRIAN MURPHY
PublishedSEPTEMBER 8, 2015, 8:06 PM EDT


Just as prosecutors seem to be closing in on David Samson, the former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who is a close confidante of N.J. Gov. and presidential candidate Chris Christie, the chief executive officer of United Continental Holdings was today ousted from his job as the head of the nation’s second largest airline after an internal investigation into his relationship and dealings with the bi-state transportation agency.

Under Jeff Smisek, United had agreed to comply with a request from Samson to begin running a flight from Newark Liberty Airport, a facility owned and controlled by the Port Authority, to Columbia, South Carolina. The route was one of the airline’s least profitable, but happened to be convenient to Samson’s vacation home. According to a source the former Port Authority chief was fond of calling it “the chairman’s flight.”

United discontinued the flight three days after Samson was forced to resign from the Port Authority in the wake of federal and state Bridgegate investigations in early 2014.

Since last year, federal prosecutors have begun focusing on the relationship between the Port Authority and United Airlines, particularly the carrier’s involvement with Atlantic City’s international airport, which the Port Authority assumed control over under Samson’s leadership and at Chris Christie’s behest as part of an effort to bolster the fortunes of the long-suffering seaside resort.

In August, the Port Authority received a federal subpoena from U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman seeking records surrounding three of the agency’s board meetings in late 2011 concerning the renegotiation of United’s lease at Newark Airport. The subpoena went after emails, draft minutes, and memoranda and specifically sought records from Samson and former deputy executive director Bill Baroni, Gov. Christie’s top staff appointee at the agency who is due to stand trial in the Bridgegate matter later this fall.

It is unclear whether that subpoena specifically mentioned United Airlines, but it was nevertheless taken as a sign that prosecutors are building a historical pattern to claim that Samson abused his position as the chairman of the agency. Any indictment of Samson would likely be a devastating blow to Christie, as it was the governor who appointed Samson to the top job. Samson, a former state attorney general, also chaired Christie’s 2009 transition team.

In a statement, the company confirmed that the ouster of Smisek and two other senior executives at the airline were connected to the investigation of Samson and the Port Authority. “The departures announced today are in connection with the company’s previously disclosed internal investigation related to the federal investigation associated with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey,” United said. “The investigations are ongoing and the company continues to cooperate with the government.”

Close to the same period when United Airlines was negotiating their 20-year, $150 million lease at Newark Liberty Airport, the Port Authority was also trying to entice the airline to begin running commercial flights to Atlantic City’s airport by offering to build a $1 billion commuter subway extension from lower Manhattan to Newark Liberty. On at least one occasion, August 23, 2013, Chris Christie and David Samson together met with United CEO Smisek to discuss this arrangement. Two months prior to that meeting, and two months after signing of the new lease at Newark, thirteen United executives donated a total of $31,500 toward Christie’s re-election effort. The donations all were made between June 5 and June 17, 2013; only two of the twelve contributors listed New Jersey residences. It was the only time that United management collectively donated to a New Jersey political campaign, and in that particular cycle they represented the single largest pool of contributions from a publicly traded company and the third-largest pool overall, trailing a medical group and state employees. Smisek and the two other United executives who resigned today were among those donors.

[backtoiam]

I couldn't resist adding the top two images for the irony value.



Ya know, just "this much" more. See how sauve I am now?


Original article follows: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Chris-Christie-Tells-New-Jersey-National-Guard-Lose-Weight-328636141.html


Chris Christie Tells NJ National Guard Leader to Lose Weight

"Gov. Chris Christie wants the leader of New Jersey's National Guard to shape up.The Republican governor has given Air Force Brig. Gen. Michael Cunniff 90 days to slim down and meet his obligations.The action comes after Christie's staff told The Washington Post that the governor was unaware the general had been reprimanded by the Pentagon about his weight and for repeatedly dodging physical-fitness tests."

"Christie, who once called himself "the healthiest fat guy you've ever seen," secretly underwent weight-loss surgery in 2013. A band was surgically placed around his stomach to restrict how much food he could eat."

[seemslikeadream]

Politics | Tue May 10, 2016 3:44pm EDT Related: U.S., ELECTION 2016, POLITICS
New Jersey judge orders naming of Bridgegate scandal co-conspirators
BY JONATHAN STEMPEL

in New Jersey on Tuesday ordered the release of a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the criminal case against two former allies of Republican Governor Chris Christie in a 2013 scandal involving lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.

U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark ruled in favor of several media organizations that sought the list, saying the public interest in seeing names linked to "Bridgegate" outweighed the privacy interests of those named.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman had opposed the release, citing the potential harm to reputations and privacy, and saying the co-conspirator designation "will become relevant, if at all" only at trial.

A spokesman for Fishman declined to comment.

Last May, Fishman's office unveiled criminal charges against Bridget Kelly, a former Christie deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, a former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The defendants were accused of wire fraud and civil rights deprivation for arranging the September 2013 shutdown of bridge access lanes in Fort Lee, New Jersey, allegedly to punish the Democratic mayor there for not endorsing Christie's successful reelection bid.

The closures snarled traffic for several days, causing big delays for drivers and hurting local businesses.

Kelly and Baroni have pleaded not guilty. David Wildstein, another former Port Authority official, pleaded guilty to two conspiracy charges.

Christie has not been charged, and has denied involvement in wrongdoing.

In her decision, Wigenton said the scandal has received such extensive media coverage that "very little" remained private.

She also called it likely that anyone on the list would be a public employee, or an elected or appointed official.

"Although privacy for third-parties is indeed important, this court is satisfied that the privacy interests of uncharged third parties are insufficiently compelling to outweigh the public's right of access," she wrote.

Bruce Rosen, a lawyer for the media companies, on Tuesday asked the judge for the "immediate" release of the list.

Christie made an unsuccessful run for the White House this year. He was chosen on Monday to lead the White House transition team for Donald Trump, the only candidate left in the race to be the Republican candidate in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

Judge Orders Feds to Release List of Bridgegate Conspirators
by CORKY SIEMASZKO

A federal judge ordered New Jersey prosecutors Tuesday to release their list of suspected Bridgegate conspirators.

The ruling was a victory for a consortium of media outfits that had been pushing the feds to publicly identify the "unindicted co-conspirators" who allegedly conspired to snarl traffic on the George Washington Bridge three years ago to punish a New Jersey mayor for not endorsing the re-election of Gov. Chris Christie.


The George Washington Bridge spans the Hudson River between Fort Lee, N.J., and New York. Mel Evans / AP file
"My clients are pleased that the Court has ordered the turnover of the list," said attorney Bruce Rosen, who represented the media groups, which includes NBC Universal.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman of New Jersey could appeal Judge Susan Wigenton's ruling. Rosen said he hopes Fishman doesn't.

"We are hopeful that U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman will heed Judge Wigenton's findings and agree that the public's right of access to this list must prevail, rather than prolonging the lack of transparency in this matter by seeking a stay," Rosen said.

There was no immediate comment from Fishman or his office.

Prosecutors had argued that releasing the names could tar the reputations of innocent individuals. But the judge noted in court papers that the names on the list belonged to people for "whom the Government has sufficient evidence to designate as having joined the conspiracy."

"Although privacy for third-parties is indeed important, the Court is satisfied that the privacy interests of uncharged third parties are insufficiently compelling to outweigh the public's right to access," the judge wrote.

Chris Christie
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Kathy Willens / AP file
The ruling comes at an awkward time for Christie, who has long maintained he had nothing to do with the politically-damaging scheme and who was recently tapped by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump to lead his transition team.

Most of the people on the list are believed to be Christie allies.

Two years ago, the once-popular Republican governor predicted Bridgegate would be a "footnote" by the time he launched his presidential campaign, which failed to gain traction. He dropped out of the race in February.

Two of Christie's associates have been charged by the feds in connection with the scheme to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich in September 2013 by deliberately creating traffic jams on the bridge that connects the mayor's town to New York City.

They are Bill Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority, and Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff.

Wigenton is presiding over their trial, which starts in September.

Another Christie appointee, Port Authority official David Wildstein, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy last May and is cooperating with prosecutors.

[82_28]

Is it just higher resolution imagery these days that all of these clowns are crazy fucking ugly?

[seemslikeadream]

Key figure in Bridgegate scandal to plead guilty
Former Chairman of the Port Authority David Samson will plead guilty to a felony charge, but avoid testifying against Trump vice presidential contender Chris Christie, who has a strange and uncomfortable connection to the Trump family.


Sanford going to plead guility

paper the Observer.....reporting this story owned by Trump's son-in-law

Breaking: Key Bridgegate Figure to Accept Guilty Plea
Former Port Authority Chairman David Samson won't testify against others; to plead as early as end of week
By Ken Kurson • 07/05/16 3:45pm
David Samson, a mentor and longtime advisor to Chris Christie, is expected to enter a guilty plea in an inquiry that came to light during the Bridgegate investigations.
David Samson, a mentor and longtime advisor to Chris Christie, is expected to enter a guilty plea in an inquiry that came to light during the Bridgegate investigations. Wolff & Samson
The Observer has exclusively learned that David Samson, a mentor to Chris Christie who was appointed by the governor Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will plead guilty to a single felony charge as early as the end of this week. According to a former prosecutor with intimate knowledge of the players in what’s become known as the Bridgegate affair, “Samson will be indicted and plead guilty to a one-count felony. He will not be cooperating with the government. I don’t know the actual statute [under which Samson will be charged], but it’s related to the Chairman’s flight.”

The source is referring to allegations made regarding Mr. Samson’s personal travel. For several years, United Airlines—the largest airline at Newark Liberty Airport and thus a key relationship for the Port Authority, which operates the airport—operated a non-stop route between Newark and Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina, which is about 50 miles from Mr. Samson’s vacation home. Within days after Mr. Samson resignation from the Port Authority in late March 2014, United canceled the route, which was alleged to be often empty and money-losing. This gave rise to the impression that the company was running the entire route simply to curry favor with the influential chairman, who was presumably only to happy to accept “the Chairman’s Flight” — what amounted to a private plane subsidized by a company with which his agency did much business. In January of 2015, federal prosecutors subpoenaed records regarding this arrangement, and in September of last year, United CEO Jeff Smisek suddenly resigned over the probe.

According to the Observer’s source, the indictment will come “as early as the end of this week and definitely by next week.” He mentioned the deliberate pace of the United States Attorney for New Jersey, Paul Fishman, who happens to be Mr. Christie’s successor. “One thing I’ve learned about Fishman is that whenever you think something’s happening tomorrow, even when you’re the one involved in it, it ends up not happening. It happens, but he’s the slowest guy on the planet.”

In April of 2015, Mr. Samson retired from the politically connected firm that bore his name, Wolff & Samson, citing declining health. The firm, which is located on a lush campus in West Orange and hosted several meeting for Chris Christie’s political team during his first run for governor in 2009, rechristened itself Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi P.C. and is now headed by former state Attorney General Jeff Chiesa, who was appointed by Christie to fill the US Senate seat of Frank Lautenberg following his death.

One aspect of this breaking news that surprised the former prosecutor who spoke to the Observer is that Samson is evidently opting not to cooperate with the prosecution and testify against others. That means he won’t be implicating fellow Port Authority employees such as former Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, who was indicted in May 2015 and faces multiple counts of conspiracy and fraud related to the shutting down of several lanes of traffic on the George Washington Bridge. And of course, it also removes any threat Christie himself may have been facing over possible revelations from a cooperating Samson.

The decision not to cooperate came as a surprise to the former prosecutor who spoke to the Observer, even as the plea itself did not. “Everyone thought this was coming. Everyone expected it. But he’s not cooperating, which means he’s going to rely on … the prosecutor will ask for a lot and he’ll leave it up to the judge.”

A call to Mr. Samson’s lawyer, Justin Walder, was not immediately returned; this breaking story will be updated to reflect additional information as it’s gathered

SAMSON’s plea -- KUSHNER’s father-in-law issue -- PORT AUTHORITY non-reform
07/06/16 07:18 AM EDT
By Matt Friedman


According to The New York Observer Editor Ken Kurson, former Port Authority Chairman David Samson is going to plead guilty to a felony count involving the “Chairman’s Flight.” He will not cooperate with prosecutors, according to the report. That’s right, Samson — a former New Jersey attorney general — won’t cooperate with prosecutors. http://bit.ly/29ftgM0
It was one thing for Christie to draw distance between himself and the Bridgegate defendants. This is a whole different level. Few people have been as close or influential with Christie as Samson.
WHERE’S CHRISTIE? Out of state. Presumably Italy

[seemslikeadream]

N.J. power broker Jamie Fox charged for alleged role in 'chairman's flight'


Ted Sherman and Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com By Ted Sherman and Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on July 14, 2016 at 2:31 PM, updated July 14, 2016 at 4:37 PM
Jamie Fox, a former state cabinet official and longtime power player in New Jersey politics, has been charged in connection with the federal government's long-running investigation into the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman announced the criminal complaint against Fox at a press conference Thursday about an hour after the Port Authority's former chairman, David Samson, pleaded guilty to a bribery count for his role in securing a special United Airlines flight between Newark Liberty International Airport and Columbia, S.C., not far from his vacation home.


Fox, a former Port Authority official who later became a lobbyist for the airline, is charged with conspiracy to commit bribery for allegedly using his influence to help arrange the flight, which shaved hours off Samson's commute.

If convicted, Fox faces up to five years in prison and a fine up to $250,000.

Fox has previously denied using his influence to secure the flight, which was canceled shortly after Samson stepped down from the Port Authority in March 2014.

An internal investigation by United led to the ouster of the airline's chief executive, Jeff Smisek, and two other executives in September 2015.

On Thursday, Fishman said United will pay a $2.25 million penalty for its role in the special flight, known to insiders as the "chairman's flight." The airline also agreed to institute "substantial reforms to its compliance program," Fishman said.

In a statement, Fox's lawyer, Michael Critchley, called his client an honorable public servant who believed the arrangement between United and Samson was "fully vetted and completely appropriate."

"Anyone who knows Jamie knows that he would never jeopardize his reputation by engaging in the behavior alleged in the indictment," Critchley said. "Jamie is not a lawyer. ... Jamie unfortunately has found himself caught in the middle of an arrangement that he believed was reviewed and approved by the necessary business and legal professionals."

Charges filed in the wake of the Bridgegate criminal investigation into abuses by political appointees at the Port Authority, then headed by Samson.

Critchley added that Fox, who is suffering from "multiple, serious" illnesses, "will not allow this unfair stain to be the last word on his distinguished career."

The U.S. Attorney called the behavior by both Samson and Fox "honestly so sad."

"They both should have known better," Fishman said. "They both did know better."

He added that when public officials misuse their offices, it shakes trust in government.

"It's a betrayal of our trust," he said. "It breathes more life into the cynical view that all people in government are corrupt."

The federal probe into the United route was an outgrowth of the investigation into the politically motivated lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.


Authorities discuss charges against David Samson, Jamie Fox
Christie's former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, and his ally at the Port Authority, former Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, are charged with orchestrating the lane closures in September 2013 as payback to the mayor of Fort Lee for declining to endorse the governor in his re-election effort.

Another former Christie ally, David Wildstein, has already pleaded guilty in the case. Kelly and Baroni are expected to stand trial in September.

The closures caused gridlock for hours in Fort Lee, delaying ambulances on emergency calls and buses ferrying kids to school.

U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton denied motions to dismiss the case.

By filing charges against Fox, the federal government is pursuing another figure with an outsize imprint on New Jersey politics, particularly among Democrats.

Once a staffer in the administration of former Gov. Jim Florio, Fox later served as chief of staff to former U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli and former Gov. James E. McGreevey.

When McGreevey resigned in disgrace in 2004, Fox jumped to the Port Authority, where he held the position of deputy executive director, a position of significant authority at the bistate agency, which controls billions of dollars.

Fox left in 2007 to work a private consultant, briefly suspending that role while he served as a senior adviser to the Obama campaign. He then returned to his consulting firm, which counted among its clients United Airlines.

Fox is also a two-time commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, first from 2002 to 2003 and then from September 2014 to October 2015. He announced his resignation as commissioner amid increasing scrutiny about his role in the "chairman's flight."

Two former state officials accused him of violating ethics laws by failing to recuse himself from talks at a private meeting between Port Authority officials and United executives. Fox denied any ethical lapse.

[82_28]

[seemslikeadream]

[seemslikeadream]

Former aide in text: Christie ‘flat out lied’ in bridge case
By David Porter | AP August 10 at 10:40 AM
NEWARK, N.J. — A former aide to Chris Christie texted to a colleague that the New Jersey governor “flat out lied” about the involvement of his senior staff and campaign manager during a news conference about the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal, according to a new court filing.

A transcript of the text is contained in court filings submitted late Tuesday by attorneys representing Bill Baroni, who faces trial next month with Christie’s ex-deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, on charges they helped orchestrate the September 2013 lane closures.

The closures were meant to create traffic jams in the city of Fort Lee to punish its Democratic mayor for not endorsing the Republican governor, prosecutors say.

Speaking to reporters in New York after appearing on a sports talk radio show Wednesday morning, Christie denied Christina Renna’s claim that he lied.

“I absolutely dispute it. It’s ridiculous. It’s nothing new,” Christie said. “There’s nothing new to talk about.”

He also noted that the information came from a filing from a defense lawyer and wasn’t from someone who was under oath.

Christie wasn’t charged in the lane-closing scandal and has denied knowing anything about it.

The text exchange between Renna, Christie’s director of intergovernmental affairs, and Peter Sheridan, a staffer on his re-election campaign, came while Christie was telling reporters at a news conference in December 2013 that no one in his office was involved in the lane closings.

Renna texted Sheridan that Christie “flat out lied” in saying his senior staff and campaign manager Bill Stepien weren’t involved.

According to the court filing, Sheridan texted Renna to say Christie was “doing fine. Holding his own up there.”

Renna responds with, “Yes. But he lied. And if emails are found with the subpoena or ... emails are uncovered in discovery if it comes to that it could be bad.”

At the news conference in question, Christie said he had “made it very clear to everybody on my senior staff that if anyone had any knowledge about this that they needed to come forward to me and tell me about it, and they’ve all assured me that they don’t.”

Stepien was Renna’s boss when she joined the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs in 2010, Renna told a legislative committee investigating the lane closures in 2014. Kelly eventually took over for Stepien. The office was responsible for outreach to county and local officials.

Christie cut ties with Stepien in January 2014 after a nearly two-hour news conference in which he apologized for the lane closures but denied any knowledge of them or a cover-up. Stepien, who is now executive director of a think-tank created by Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, has not been charged.

Attorneys representing Renna and Stepien didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment Wednesday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... story.html

[seemslikeadream]

Trump Casinos’ Tax Debt Was $30 Million. Then Christie Took Office.
By RUSS BUETTNERAUG. 16, 2016


A deputy New Jersey attorney general wrote in 2007 that Donald J. Trump’s flagship casino, the Taj Mahal, had reported that it paid $2.2 million in alternative minimum assessment tax in 2003, which was not true. It had paid only $500 in income taxes. Credit Mark Makela for The New York Times
By the time Chris Christie became governor of New Jersey, the state’s auditors and lawyers had been battling for several years to collect long-overdue taxes owed by the casinos founded by his friend Donald J. Trump.

The total, with interest, had grown to almost $30 million. The state had doggedly pursued the matter through two of the casinos’ bankruptcy cases and even accused the company led by Mr. Trump of filing false reports with state casino regulators about the amount of taxes it had paid.

But the year after Governor Christie, a Republican, took office, the tone of the litigation shifted. The state entertained settlement offers. And in December 2011, after six years in court, the state agreed to accept just $5 million, roughly 17 cents on the dollar of what auditors said the casinos owed.

Tax authorities sometimes settle for lesser amounts to avoid the costs and risks of further litigation, legal experts said, but the steep discount granted to the Trump casinos and the relationship between the two men raise inevitable questions about special treatment.

“You can’t tell whether there’s something problematic, but it’s pretty striking that this one was written down so much,” said David Skeel, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School who specializes in bankruptcy law and reviewed the case at the request of The New York Times.

The refusal by Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, to release his personal income tax returns has become a growing issue in the campaign. He has also boasted of his success in lowering his tax burden as a businessman, declaring last year in an interview on Fox News that only “a stupid person, a really stupid person, is paying a lot of taxes.”

By that measure, the deal with New Jersey looks remarkably shrewd. The casinos did far better, for example, than those that benefited from a program Mr. Christie introduced in 2014 under which the state agreed to consider reducing penalties for delinquent taxpayers but only if they caught up on all overdue taxes and interest.

Public records do not create a clear picture of how the agreement was reached. A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump said she would be in touch regarding questions sent to her. But she did not reply further or respond to subsequent messages.

Mr. Trump and Gov. Chris Christie at a campaign rally in Texas in February. Mr. Trump has given Mr. Christie, a longtime friend, the task of heading his transition committee. Credit Cooper Neill for The New York Times
Brian Murray, a spokesman for Mr. Christie, said the governor had not been aware of the tax dispute and, therefore, could not comment on the terms of the settlement.

The Times discovered the agreement during a review of the thousands of documents filed in the bankruptcies of Mr. Trump’s casinos. The taxes went unpaid from 2002 through 2006, during which time Mr. Trump was leading the company as chairman and, until 2005, as its chief executive. He reaped millions of dollars in fees and bonuses from the company, even as it underperformed competitors, lost money every year and saw its stock collapse.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Christie met in 2002, when Mr. Christie was the United States attorney for New Jersey. Mr. Trump’s sister Maryanne Trump Barry, then a federal judge in the state, had mentioned to Mr. Christie that her famous brother would like to meet him. They struck up a friendship. Mr. Christie was invited to Mr. Trump’s third wedding in 2005, and Mr. Trump was a prominent guest at Mr. Christie’s inauguration in 2010. They have double dated with their wives.

Their bond has occasionally included financial largess from Mr. Trump. His foundation made large donations to the Drumthwacket Foundation, which finances maintenance and improvements to New Jersey’s historic governor’s residence, after Mr. Christie became its honorary chairman. Mr. Trump also made large contributions to the Republican Governors Association when Mr. Christie was its chairman.

After attacking Mr. Christie during the recent Republican primary contest, Mr. Trump seriously considered choosing him as his running mate before picking Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana. But Mr. Christie has remained a vocal supporter and was given a prominent speaking role at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, and Mr. Trump has given his friend the task of heading his transition committee.

“Donald and I, along with Melania and Pat, have been friends for over a decade,” Mr. Christie said in his convention speech about Mr. Trump. “He has been a good and loyal friend.”

The state corporate tax at the center of the dispute went into effect in 2002. It was called the alternative minimum assessment and was created, in part, to prevent businesses from avoiding taxes through accounting maneuvers.

An executive with the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey testified at a state hearing in 2003 that Atlantic City casinos saw their state tax liability quadruple, primarily because of the new alternative minimum tax, during its first year. But the Trump casinos decided the tax did not apply to them, according to court filings.

After the Trump casinos filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004 for the third time, state officials noticed the company had not been filling out the required schedule for the minimum tax assessment. The Trump casinos had reported losing money and paid a little more than $600,000 in state income taxes in 2002, and only $1,500 in 2003. State auditors determined that the Trump casinos should have paid $8.8 million in alternative minimum taxes for those two years, according to court records.

Inside the Trump Taj Mahal. Though he was pushed out of running the company he founded, Mr. Trump said he would stay “very involved” with the casino company that would continue to bear his name. Credit Mark Makela for The New York Times
The company filed an administrative protest with the state, but it was rejected. The company’s lawyers continued to fight the state’s claim in bankruptcy court, arguing that the tax was unconstitutional and that it should not apply to the Trump casinos because they were organized as partnerships.

State lawyers also found other irregularities in the company’s tax filings.

In February 2007, Heather Lynn Anderson, a deputy attorney general who specializes in tax cases, filed papers in court saying auditors had discovered discrepancies that raised “numerous additional questions regarding the accuracy” of the Trump casinos’ tax returns. The company had reported lower revenue figures on its tax returns, for example, than on filings with the State Casino Control Commission. Ms. Anderson also wrote that Mr. Trump’s flagship casino, the Taj Mahal, had reported to the casino commission that it paid $2.2 million in alternative minimum assessment tax in 2003, which was not true. The company had paid only $500 in income taxes.

The state’s claim still had not been resolved by early 2009, when the Trump casinos filed for bankruptcy protection yet again. By then, the state said the total due, with interest, had risen to $29.4 million.

Mr. Christie’s name actually appeared in the bankruptcy cases during those years, when he was the United States attorney for New Jersey, and more than a dozen briefs were filed under his name as representing the federal Internal Revenue Service in its own claims against the Trump casinos. But the case was handled by an I.R.S. lawyer. Mr. Murray, the governor’s spokesman, said Mr. Christie had no supervisory role in pursuing the agency’s claims.

After Mr. Christie became governor, his friendship with Mr. Trump occasionally made celebrity news. In March 2011, The New York Post’s gossip column, Page Six, reported that the two men and their wives double dated at Jean-Georges, a luxury restaurant in Mr. Trump’s tower at Columbus Circle in Manhattan.

By then, Mr. Trump had been pushed out of running the company he founded, after his efforts to hang on through bankruptcy were thwarted by investors. But he still had financial ties to the company.

When he testified in support of the plan to reorganize the company without his direct leadership, Mr. Trump said he would stay “very involved” with the casino company that would continue to bear his name. He remained a large shareholder, controlling 10 percent of the company’s stock. And in October 2011, the company announced it had entered a joint venture with Mr. Trump and his daughter Ivanka to pursue online gambling should it become legal.

“We think we have the hottest brand there is, the Trump brand, my personal brand,” Mr. Trump told The Associated Press. “We think it’s going to do phenomenally well.”

(The joint venture agreement expired before New Jersey approved online gambling in 2013.)

Around the same time, the tone of the tax litigation softened. Ms. Anderson notified the judge in the case that the two sides were in settlement discussions. On Dec. 5, 2011, New Jersey and the Trump casino company filed a settlement agreement with the court showing that the state would accept $5 million, paid in two installments, on a tab of about $30 million.


By the time of the settlement, the industry was suffering a long slide that had started in 2006. The Trump company had just sold one of its casinos, Trump Marina Hotel Casino, for $38 million.

A spokesman for the attorney general’s office, Leland Moore, said the settlement was approved largely because of the risks of continuing to fight in bankruptcy court and the “concerns about the future ability of the casinos to pay their tax debts.”

The Trump casinos may not have been able to afford their long overdue taxes, but they did not turn suddenly spartan, either. They continued to rent a helicopter from Mr. Trump for $390,000 a year, until they filed for bankruptcy again in 2014.

Mr. Moore declined to release the titles of officials who approved the settlement, except to say it was agreed to by officials from both the attorney general’s office and the State Division of Taxation.

Mr. Christie was close to the attorney general at the time, Paula T. Dow, whom he had appointed and who worked for him as a prosecutor at the United States attorney’s office. A week after the settlement was signed, Mr. Christie announced that he was appointing Ms. Dow to the counsel’s office of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey until he could find her the judgeship that she desired.

“I think you all know that Paula Dow has been one of my most trusted advisers for the last 10 years,” Mr. Christie said at the time.

The Trump casinos did agree to pay more than $1 million in other taxes that the state sought in the bankruptcy cases.

Ms. Anderson, the deputy attorney general, had also prevailed over the Trump casinos in a separate case in which the company had sought a $2.7 million refund of sales taxes. She declined to discuss the cases. But her husband, Joseph Rival, has made his thoughts publicly known. He once referred to Mr. Trump as a “tax cheat” in a Twitter post. Another Twitter commenter pushed him to say which tax Mr. Trump had cheated. Mr. Rival, a conservative voter, wrote: “The State of New Jersey. He had to pay up millions, I know the lawyer that beat him.”

On another date, he posted, “My wife’s beaten him in tax court more than once.”

The settlement was one of the last disputes in that bankruptcy case, and it was finally closed in January 2012.

The following month, Page Six reported that the Christies and the Trumps were again double dating at Jean-Georges.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/17/us/po ... sinos.html

[seemslikeadream]

take that you fat fuckin dickhead....perfect.....love to see YOUR emails take you down

Chris Christie’s emails could soon be exposed
By Associated Press September 10, 2016 | 4:38pm
Modal Trigger Chris Christie’s emails could soon be exposed


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TRENTON, N.J. — Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s personal email must be searched — or he must prove that it already has been — to comply with the state’s public records law, a judge has ruled.

The Record reports that Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson issued the ruling Friday in response to a request filed last year by North Jersey Media Group, the newspaper’s publisher.

The request sought records related to a range of subjects, including the George Washington Bridge scandal. Among the records requested, the newspaper asked for email correspondence between the governor and his aides dealing with a 2013 meeting with Democratic Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Two former Christie allies go on trial this month on federal charges that they conspired to create traffic jams at the bridge to punish Fulop for not endorsing Christie’s re-election in 2013. Christie wasn’t charged in the lane-closing scandal and has denied knowing anything about it.

The judge said in her ruling that the newspaper was entitled to the personal emails because the bridge scandal made it clear Christie had used his personal email account for business. She also ordered the search of personal emails of administration employees to the extent that it’s possible.

Christie’s office declined comment on the ruling.

The governor’s office provided 90 pages of documents in response to the newspaper’s request, but 56 of those pages were heavily redacted. The office also did not search Christie’s personal accounts in responding to the request, even though he and other state employees frequently used personal email to conduct government business, as investigators found in the fallout of the bridge lane closures.

During court arguments, Christie’s office contended that one email, about a meeting between a former Port Authority executive and Fulop, was not subject to the open-records law because it concerned his re-election campaign. It also argued that the reporter who filed the request was playing a “game of gotcha” in seeking records that “were all at play or at least discussed” in the federal criminal case on the 2013 bridge lane closures.

Samuel Samaro, a lawyer for the newspaper, said there were problems with the office’s initial search since Christie regularly used personal email and it appeared he had used it for official business, which would make it subject to the records law. He also noted criticism that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has received over her use of a private email server as secretary of state.
http://nypost.com/2016/09/10/chris-chri ... hed-judge/

[seemslikeadream]

Bridgegate trial begins today: How does it all end?


Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Print Email Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com By Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

on September 19, 2016 at 6:27 AM, updated September 19, 2016 at 6:28 AM
After three years, a legislative inquiry, a federal investigation and one guilty plea, the corruption trial of two former allies of Gov. Chris Christie in the George Washington Bridge scandal finally gets underway today with opening statements before a jury in Newark.

On trial are Bridget Anne Kelly, the governor's former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, once a close associate and deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge. They are charged with nine counts of conspiracy, fraud and related charges in connection with the September 2013 toll lane shutdowns at the bridge—an incident that caused massive traffic problems in Fort Lee in what prosecutors called an act of political retribution targeting Mayor Mark Sokolich for his refusal to endorse Christie for re-election.

What happens next?

The high-profile criminal trial, which has garnered national news coverage as the investigation played out against the failed presidential aspirations of the governor, has already deflated the stature of the once popular Republican who suffered a sharp reversal of fortune despite the lack of evidence that he was aware of the political stunt, or condoned it.

Questions remain. Will there be new revelations and will the testimony show just who knew about the scheme? Who were the unindicted conspirators who were involved in the plan, but never charged? And will former Christie aide Christina Genovese Renna—who is expected to testify at the trial—drop any further bombshells like the text she sent a colleague during a December 2013 news conference claiming that the governor "flat out lied" when he said none of his senior staff had known about the plot.

Four observers of New Jersey politics and law were asked to predict what may happen during the trial. Here is what they expect:

Matthew Hale.jpg
Matthew Hale
Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs
Seton Hall University

Will Kelly and Baroni be convicted?

Predicting trial outcomes is dangerous business especially if you are not a lawyer. However, I think that they are going to be at least partially acquitted. I think most people think these two were just pawns in Chris Christie's game of revenge. That might not be true but it might be enough to get them both acquitted.
What did Christie know?

I have said since day one that I honestly don't believe that Governor Christie is dumb enough to get involved in the details of a vengeful lane closing. I think he clearly created a culture where his team would think this kind of retaliation makes sense. I do think the trial will show that after the bridge closing Christie knew more about it much sooner than has previous been disclosed. But I don't think that there will be evidence that Christie knew about it ahead of time.
Is this much ado about nothing?

The people of New Jersey have already "convicted" Chris Christie and the entire of political class of being mean, revengeful and out of touch with how much a traffic jam matters to regular people. Christie's poll numbers are so low in New Jersey I doubt he could get elected dog catcher in Mendham (his hometown). So at the end of the day I don't see much of an appetite for meaningful ethics reforms once this trial is over. New Jersey voters just want to move on to the next governor and get this behind them.

Harrison
Brigid Harrison
Professor of Political Science and Law
Montclair State University

A split verdict?

I think it is more likely that Baroni will be found guilty than Kelly, who may be perceived as both more sympathetic and less responsible for the activities that ensued if she is able to demonstrate that she "was just following orders," as many people believe.

Will the trial show Christie knew more than he claims?

It is likely, particularly with (David) Wildstein's statements. There is now considerable more pressure on the defendants' attorneys (particularly Michael Critchley, who represents Kelly) to show that the governor knew, simply because of the "he flat out lied" text from a Christie staff member. Proving that Governor Christie knew more than was indicated seems central to Kelly's defense.

Will this be a wake-up call about NJ politics?

It will, like Bid Rig (the corruption investigation that ensnared mayors, legislators and other elected officials) and the many other scandals the state has seen, serve as a temporary wake-up call. But the reality is that politics is full of politicians who egos allow them to believe that something like this could never happen to them. And yet it continues to do so...

Lee Vartan Lee Vartan
Litigation attorney with Holland & Knight
Former federal prosecutor
Former Chief of Staff and Executive Assistant NJ Attorney General
How does the defense make its case?

Based on the filings to date, I think the defense will have a dual focus: discredit David Wildstein at every turn—I suspect his cross examination will spill into days; and insinuate a question into the jurors' minds: why are Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly alone at the defense table. Was the lane shutdown really engineered by Wildstein, Baroni, and Kelly by themselves?
There is a natural tendency to believe that because Baroni and Kelly are sitting together, they will be unified in their defense theory. That may be the case, but it may not. It is at least conceivable that Kelly will seek to distance herself from Baroni since it was him, not her, who worked at the Port Authority and was empowered to shut down the lanes. Kelly may hammer a single point: I am charged with doing something I had absolutely no power to do.


Executive Director, PublicMind
Professor of Political Science Fairleigh Dickinson University
Will there be any blockbusters?

A blockbuster revelation would not surprise me. After all, who would have thought that a governor with an approval rating in the 70s would so quickly find himself wallowing in the depths of the 20s, all because of the pettiness of unnecessary political retribution.

But is this all politics as usual?

When FDU asked New Jerseyans if the Bridgegate affair was simply par for the course in state politics, or something that really goes beyond the pale, two thirds said they find the behavior of state officials atypical, even for New Jersey standards. So, this suggests that if the public has anything to say, Bridgegate may lead to more than navel gazing among officials for how state business is conducted and how elected officials conduct themselves. But, who knows? There's a lot vested in the status quo and I wouldn't be too quick to assume government will do much to make nice with the public.