The legal bills related to the George Washington Bridge scandal continue to pile up.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) 2013 re-election campaign has been billed at least $314,000 so far in legal fees related to the multiple investigations of the lane closures. That total exceeds the campaign’s cash on hand.
The campaign retained the law firm Patton Boggs LLP in response to the investigations being conducted by federal prosecutors in New Jersey and a state legislative committee, according to the Journal. It received subpoenas from both investigations in January.
In March, the campaign paid Patton Boggs $160,000. It paid another $153,000 to Stroz Friedberg, an investigations and intelligence firm, for legal fees related to the bridge scandal. In documents released Monday, the campaign listed $156,587 cash on hand for the first three months of 2014, and stated that it had raised just $3,800 during the period, according to the Journal. The campaign lists $264,000 in legal fees as debts.
A separate firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, has been representing Christie’s office in the multiple investigations. It has yet to submit bills for the internal investigation it conducted into the scandal, which cleared Christie of any role in the lane closures that caused a massive traffic jam in Fort Lee., N.J. in September. The legislative committee investigating the matter has spent at least $488,400 in state funds to pay for a special counsel, according to the Journal.
