The U.S. attorney for New Jersey has cleared three current and former officials in Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) administration of wrongdoing in an alleged scheme to cow the mayor of Hoboken into supporting a development project by withholding Hurricane Sandy relief funds.
Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer came forward in January 2014 to accuse Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (R) and a former Cabinet official, Richard Constable, of pressuring her in May 2013 to approve a development project for the Rockefeller Group, which was repped by a law firm with close ties to Christie. Zimmer produced journal entries to support her case.
Guadagno shared a letter from U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman’s office Saturday on Twitter and said it vindicated her initial responses to Zimmer’s allegations:
This morning,the US Attorney,the FBI and DOJ’s Public Integrity Sec agreed with what I have said from the start. Look pic.twitter.com/Vo3iwp6kUm
— Kim Guadagno (@LtGovGuadagno) May 2, 2015
3/2014 “Mayor Zimmer’s ..,are demonstrably false based on contemporaneous documents, other witness accounts, and her own prior statement(s)”
— Kim Guadagno (@LtGovGuadagno) May 2, 2015
1/2014 Mayor Zimmers story “is not only false but is illogical, and does not withstand scrutiny when all of the facts are examined.”
— Kim Guadagno (@LtGovGuadagno) May 2, 2015
“This office and the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, together with the FBI, have investigated allegations that certain current and former officials of the state of New Jersey, including your client, made statements to the effect that Hurricane Sandy relief funds for the City of Hoboken were dependent on the mayor’s support for a private development project,” the letter, addressed to Guadagno’s attorney William Maderer, read. “Based on the evidence developed during the investigation and our review of the applicable law, we have concluded that no further action is warranted in this matter. Accordingly, the investigation of these allegations has been closed.”
An anonymous official in U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman’s office confirmed to The New York Times that letters were sent saying the investigation had been closed. Guadagno requested the letter, as did Constable, the former state commissioner of community affairs, and Marc Ferzan, the former official in charge of Sandy recovery, according to the Times.
