ABC News reported Friday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) was interviewed last month by federal investigators probing the 2013 closures on the George Washington Bridge that have hounded Christie ever since.
The interviews were conducted by the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey at the governor’s mansion, according to ABC News’s Josh Margolin.
Christie met with investigators for more than two hours, according to Margolin. The interview was voluntary, though a subpoena had been considered.
“Governor Christie made clear from day one that he and his administration would fully cooperate with all appropriate inquiries,” Christie spokeswoman Maria Comella told ABC News. “That’s exactly what he has done and will continue to do, and he is very much looking forward to this matter’s conclusion.”
The news comes after reports this week that U.S. attorney Paul Fishman subpoenaed Christie’s re-election campaign and the legislative committee that investigated the bridge closures.
Christie has maintained since the closures, which clogged traffic on the bridge for several days in September 2013 and his opponents have alleged were politically motivated, that he knew nothing about the closures in advance. He has also fired aides involved in the controversy.
“…and he is very much looking forward to this matter’s conclusion.”
So are we! We can’t wait to see how all that orange in his new jumpsuit sets off the red in his eyes! He should look positively dashing!
No doubt he tried to bluster and bully his way through the questions. What an asshole!
Re. the orange, you got a sneak peak when Christie wore his Great Pumpkin sweater to watch the Lions-Cowboys game with Jerry Jones.
Actually that approach does not have a record of proven success with US attorney, DoJ & FBI types, as a not-insignificant number of former state governors can tell us.
The folks employed in legal officer positions in any given US attorney office tend to be experts in two areas in particular: public corruption and civil rights violation. Christie, tho himself NOMINALLY a US attorney for a time during the younger Bush administration, was never actually a functioning trial lawyer leave aside criminal law specialist, and under his leadership the US attorney’s office he ran was not actually known for clever or particularly competent investigations or in-court work, but rather were best known nationally for the unusually high number of instances where plea deals were made that depended materially on consent supervision by such legal notables (if not exactly noteworthies) former US AG John Ashcroft, who’s firm made a gar-barge loadful of dough off the arrangements.
The more interesting aspect to this necessarily sketchy report is that it FOLLOWS such POLITICO-worthy assessments of Christie having somehow ‘succeeded’ in avoiding the worst aspects of Bridgegate. I have not Clue #1 as to what LEGAL or FACTUAL basis that POLITICO or whoever might have to justify such an assessment.
Finally, folks who followed proceedings such as US vs Scooter Libby may recall how this works but it’s worth reminding the larger audience that such interviews as this one ALONE can form the basis of criminal charges of lying to the government, and besides are typically Stage 1 in a multistage process involving: informal contact, subpoena threat with actual subpoena if required, interview, follow-up production and questions, on record under oath testimony before some judicial officer which usually means but does not necessarily mean a grand jury proceeding, followed by indictments, pre-trial discovery and related rulings, trial, appeal, etc.
IOW this US attorney interview with Christie isn’t being done along the path OUT of the woods – it’s being conducted closer to the darkest patches on the way in towards the heart of public corruption process darkness.
Any truth to the rumor that Christie will be introducing a bill to make prison mess halls an all-you-can-eat buffet?