David Wildstein, the former Port Authority honcho who was thrown under the bus this morning during Governor Chris Christie’s press conference, has been found in contempt of the New Jersey assembly for refusing to answer simple questions about his email account and former employment. It’s a misdemeanor offense, and it’s puzzling because he does have a right against self-incrimination. But his lawyer advised him to not answer any questions whatsoever, even if honest answers were highly unlikely to pertain to any criminal activity.
Needless to say, this doesn’t look good. This is not the kind of cooperation with the investigation that Gov. Chris Christie promised in his press conference. It seems very probable that Christie knew that Wildstein would plead the fifth and, in fact, was depending on it when he made his blanket denials of fore- or after-knowledge of the criminal conspiracy that was hatched in his own office.
I am fairly certain that the Chris Christie press conference was one the worst displays of bald-faced lying that any of us have witnessed since at least the time that Anthony Weiner claimed that his Twitter account was hacked. Bold and confident lying can be convincing when you are unwilling to believe that someone could be so dishonest, but I am not unwilling to believe that Christie is dishonest, and I was utterly unconvinced of his innocence. I think that almost every word out of his mouth was a lie.
And I think it will all start to unravel very soon.
“he does have a right against self-incrimination.”
That he does. But he has no right against boss-incrimination.
I think that’s why they voted to find him in contempt, not because he’s protecting himself, but because he’s protecting Christie.
I’d say “stick a fork in him, he’s done,” but I’m not sure anyone has a big enough fork.
I agree. He is a known bully who takes offense at even a question he dislikes and uses the opportunity to humiliate the Questioner. Tell me how he was completely in the dark for four days even after he ‘moved the cones’. I would like to see the results of that traffic study which I am sure is now being typed. Didn’t I once hear someone say ‘you lie’ to Obama?
D’ya think “moving the cones” has a shot at becoming a blog meme like “the 27%” (Kung Fu Monkey) or “tire rims and anthrax” (Balloon Juice)?
Am I a bad person for delighting in watching a politician being taken down for his corruption? (The sex and drugs scandals are so much less interesting.)
Great fun when (Maximum) John Sirica threw the book at the Watergate burglars and they began to squeal. Butterfield and John Dean testifying in the Senate Hearings. The we watched Nixon squirm for over a year.
The time to “move along” is after Christie is completely done and not a moment before then.
From a political junkie’s perspective, this is such a fascinating scandal because the bridge closure thuggery is like something out of House of Cards. It’s how a lot of people normally expect politicians to behave behind closed doors even when corruption like this (at least) on this scale is actually quite rare.
And that’s aside from the fact that this guy is a leading national Republican and a major 2016 contender. And this is New Jersey, maybe the most “classic” locale of political corruption in the US.
I agree that sex and drug “scandals” are much less interesting. That’s just human frailty and longing. This is pure venality.
Only because there is no media to speak of in Louisiana!
You think Wildstein is still trying to protect Christie? It looks more to me like he’s trying to cut a deal with the Legislature (or maybe even the US Attorney) in exchange for selling Christie out.
I’m betting (hoping) on the US Attorney.
I’m fairly certain this is going to end with jail time for one of Christie’s aides. And possibly Christie himself, if the evidence is strong enough.
A few days ago, there was a comment (and I wish I recall exactly WHERE) on some of the Bridgegazi memos, where it was implied scheduling a meeting at a time when Christie was available.
So there could certainly be some unexploded ordinance in those memos, even without someone squealing.
There is a reference here: “it’s the only day that works for the Gov.”
http://www.northjersey.com/news/Documents_GWB_emails_between_Port_Authority_and_Christie_administrat
ion.html
Best BRIDGEGHAZI!!!!! joke to date:
Welp, I guess I called it earlier. No resignation, just bluster.
And actually I thought I read that the usual suspects and hack pundits loved it…whatever.
At the very least I think this definitely ends his presidential aspirations
Yeah, it’s over for him. He won’t come close to the nomination. His ability to get through a Republican primary despite his many ideological detours was contingent on his electability in a general election. But that’s gone now. Will be interesting to see how much his approval rating craters over the next couple weeks.
That about sums it for me. Christie’s “bipartisan” cover is destroyed. He might hang on to the governorship for a while, but that once ironclad grip is looking pretty weak, too.
How can anyone believe him? Christie is a former US Attorney. An attorney in either NJ’s, the NJGOP’s, or the governor’s employ reviewed and redacted the documents turned over to the legislature’s investigating committee, including the e-mails Christie says he first saw yesterday!
How could the governor and his lawyers NOT know at that point? It’s utterly unbelievable.
I was at work and missed the press conference, why exactly is Christie going to Fort Lee?
BTW: `It Was Just Her Time’: 91-Year-Old Woman’s Daughter Doesn’t Blame Christie for Mother’s Death
by Matt Wilstein | 3:34 pm, January 9th, 2014
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/it-was-just-her-time-91-year-old-womans-daughter-doesnt-blame-christie-fo
r-mothers-death/
apparently Christie will meet with the family of the 91 year old woman.
to lie to their faces.
Apparently the Mayor of Fort Lee asked Christie to not come because the investigation is ongoing ant Christie said he doesn’t care if the Mayor doesn’t want to meet him his coming anyway!
Doesn’t that just affirm his bullying behaviour?
That’s just weird. If my mother died, I wouldn’t want any politician of any stripe visiting me. I would refuse President Obama himself if he decided to pop in and say his condolences because I would want to be left alone to do my private family business.
I understand Christie is trying to get some good publicity, but how does he think barging in on a grieving daughter is going to do that?
Wonder how big that life insurance policy that the daughter “found” yesterday is? Or maybe she isn’t a proper American that would now be having visions of big bucks from a lawsuit that dozen attorneys are clamoring for her to file.
But, but, but, he’s stronger than the storm! Or something.
No matter what comes next, I wouldn’t be surprised to witness another Ken Lay type escape. No one would be “stunned, stunned!”
He’s finished anyway, even the republican party wouldn’t select a national candidate that is so aggressive about calling other people stupid.
..another Ken Lay type escape…
No way. Christie’s crimes don’t involve grabbing 100’s of millions of dollars, that he’d lose by conviction. Any jail time he’d get would be short and light.
And (unlike Lay), he doesn’t have a friend like Cheney with links to the CIA to use an undetectable “heart attack” drug to make sure that the truth never comes out.
Since Wildstein is suing to not answer question, the advice was probably so that he wouldn’t have any precedent before the suit was decided if it hasn’t been.
I say Christie wriggles off the hook. Having meted out his bullying retribution to the Democrat, the GOP base will eat it up that he got away with it. He’ll be forgiven his Hurricane Sandy transgressions and once again emerge as a Darling for 2016.
This is too big to cover up now. (Sorry, the jokes write themselves!) There is a LOT more Christie BS to come to light. See my comment below in the thread.
Hell, even Mittens saw through this guy.
Some days I wish I could draw or use cartoon computer program.
Am seeing Christie at a podium wearing an orange cone hat, an audience labeled NJ voters facing towards Christie also wearing orange cone hats, and behind them the MSM wearing double orange cone hats. On the left hand side of the wall behind Christie “Bridge” and on the right side “Bridget.”
It was bound to surface in a BIG way. Too much to keep covering up. Here’s a story from Hunterdon County, where I grew up, that made it into the NYT from three months ago….
The Quashing of a Case Against a Christie Ally
Anybody from the NY/NJ US Attorneys Offices in years past should be highly suspect of the darkest motives and knowledge, imo.
Mr. Drewniak makes a prominent appearance in this story…
Graham: Bridge Scandal ‘Reinforces A Narrative’ That Christie Is A ‘Bully’
@TPM 1m
Fort Lee Mayor accepts Christie’s apology: “I’m glad he came.” http://bit.ly/1diYvpk
Which makes one wonder just what sort of state goodies Christie promised him for saying that?
I think he will be on Maddow tonight.
probably being cautious. doubt that CC promised him anything. there’s alot he could take away though
looks like Christie’s target wasn’t the mayor but Loretta Weinberg, state senator and 76 yr old widow whose district includes Ft Lee. Note Christie’s often quoted “won’t someone take a bat to Loretta Weinberg”!!!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/09/1268532/-Bridgegate-NOTHING-to-do-with-Mayor-of-Ft-Lee-Moti
ve-may-be-even-worse
Seems odd that reporters haven’t reconstructed a timeline that includes what, if anything, was covered by the media (print, radio, TV, blogs) during those four days. IOW how big of a deal was it in real time for the general public?
This is but a skeletal outline and suggests no real time perception that Christie’s office was screwing with Ft. Lee.
How could this go on for four days before Foye acted? Why the Port Authority public statement that it had closed the lanes for a traffic study?
To execute this stunt required the actions of a lot more people than Kelly, Baroni, and Sokolich.
And look at what surfaced today: (Business Insider)
No wonder Sokolich assumed that he was the target. Puts a big of a damper on Maddow’s conjecture.
Question: Was the lane that remained open automatic? Were toll booth workers effected by the shutting of lanes (told not to come to work, for example?
“I am not a bully.”
Horseshit. Only someone with a take-no-prisoners F-you to your face approach to politics and score-settling could have inspired a governing culture where a deputy chief of staff would have felt comfortable doing this.
I keep thinking of Nixon and the groupthink that created Donald Segretti.
The Thomas à Becket “meddlesome priest” analogy is the one that resonates most with me. To the extent that Christie didn’t “know” (wink, wink, nod, nod) it’s all part of a “plausible deniability” strategy. Only problem is that Christie’s toxic personality is so outsized, the very notion that he wasn’t “in the know” is ridiculous. He doesn’t mimic Hirohito very well.
In the next few weeks just watch: he’ll be running around the State like a striped ass mandrill seeking forgiveness while still playing the alpha male. Please, just go away, asshole.
I hope the ongoing investigations force him to do just that, but we can never underestimate the IOKIYAR factor.
There is a news item that the FBI is involving themselves in the investigation. Wonder if they are going to use their access to NSA stored calls and emails? In principle, they could get a warrant from a judge, not even a FISA issue, and subpoena the records from NSA.
And then there is the possibility that for the sake of the country President Obama will throw Christie a lifesaver. Look forward, not backward, and all that. Not highly probable in my opinion.
But is the NJ General Assembly up to taking down a corrupt governor?
yes, yes, no
the FBI has already seen anything they want to. “warrant”? how quaint. But this justice dept will stick to prosecuting hackers, leakers and pot dealers.
Yep…for over a hundred years…pimps, immigrants, and anarchists.
Does that possibility actually exist? If it did happen could the PermaGov fix be any more clearly and publicly delineated short of the fixers ratting each other out on the nightly news? I don’t think so. Obama will have to continue the fix premise of “opposing parties.” He may attempt to remain somewhat neutral, above the fray…I mean, that’s his position on almost everything when you get right down to it…but that will be the extent of it.
I wish Obama would try to play Okey-Dokey footsie with this thing, but he’s too smart for that. If he isn’t, his handlers are. Watch.
AG
I really think the only question is if the GOP Establishment has anyone else they could reasonably run in ’16. They have to find Christie embarrassing. He wasn’t up to their standards to begin with, and this is just petty. If there is anyone else who they believe has a chance of winning in ’16, they’ll let Christie crash and burn. If he is still their best chance, God help them, they’ll make this all go away. It’s not hard to make a scandal be forgotten if you have three years and infinite money.
The positive side is that we should very soon have a pretty good idea of what the GOP intends for ’16. And early warning is always good.
Looks as if the spirit of Enoch Lewis “Nucky” Johnson is alive and well a century later.
In other New Jersey news, poet Amiri Baraka, poet laureate of New Jersey, died today. It seems fitting to quote one of his most famous lines in the context of Chris Christie flirtation with the criminal side.
And more in keeping with remembering Amiri Baraka:
Well Rachel’s new look at the date of the email that caused the closure brings a whole new perspective, and actually more reasonable explanation of the why behind the story.
Her premise is that the fight between the Dem Legislature & Christie over appointing judges was the real reason. Given the timing and that the Dem Leader represents the impacted area it’s a good premise. Just the day before Christie had held a press conference about why he wasn’t going to re nominate another judge.
What do you get when you combine a bully like Christie with the power of the NSA? I shudder to think…