Federal officials clarified this weekend they are not investigating New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) over the alleged retaliatory firing of a local prosecutor.
The comments came after the International Business Times, in an article titled “Chris Christie Administration Is Target Of New Federal Criminal Probe,” reported last week that federal investigators had interviewed a former prosecutor, Bennett Barlyn, who has alleged that Christie’s administration had him fired after he protested that a criminal case had been dropped against a political ally of the governor’s.
Barlyn told IBT that the investigators spent a significant amount of their time asking him about Christie specifically.
But a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman told ABC News over the weekend that Christie was not the target of the investigation.
“Any characterization that we are investigating the governor about this is just not true,” spokesman Matthew Reilly said. “We talk to people all the time. It doesn’t mean we’re investigating anybody.”
The denial, however, appeared to be limited to Christie personally. The original IBT report said that the feds have initiated a “criminal investigation of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration, pursuing allegations the governor’s staff broke the law when they quashed grand jury indictments against Christie supporters.”
Federal investigations into the George Washington bridge closures and other issues surrounding the Christie administration continue, however, with federal investigators issuing a subpoena for one of the governor’s longtime allies as recently as last week.
