The employer of one of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) close advisers told The Newark Star-Ledger this week that it had hired a lawyer — despite not yet having been approached by any of the investigations swirling around the governor.
A spokesperson for Mercury Public Affairs, where former Christie campaign strategist Michael DuHaime is a partner, confirmed to the newspaper that the company had retained a lawyer from Bracewell Giuliani, the law firm founded by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R).
“Unfortunately, in this highly charged climate, it’s necessary even for those wholly uninvolved in this matter to retain counsel,” spokesperson Michael McKeon told the Star-Ledger in a statement. “Accordingly, in an abundance of caution, Mercury has retained Marc Mukasey of Bracewell Giuliani to ensure we comply with any requests that may come our way. To be clear, we have not been asked by anyone to turn over documents of any kind, but we wanted to be prepared to cooperate quickly should a request come.”
Giuliani has spoken about the Christie scandals during several recent media appearances. On Friday, Guiliani appeared on CNN to talk about a document alleging that Christie knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closures while they were happening.
“It’s a statement that creates a lot of ambiguity, some good for the governor, some that create questions,” Guiliani said. “The part that’s good is it’s clear the governor didn’t know about it beforehand, so he didn’t plan it, right? The question is when did he find out about it? The letter is very ambiguous as to when he found out about it.”
