Hoboken, N.J. Mayor Dawn Zimmer revealed two more letters on Monday night that she said bolster her claim that Gov. Chris Christie’s administration threatened to withhold hurricane relief money from her city unless she approved a real estate project.
Zimmer showed the letters, which she said she sent to Christie last year discussing her requests for relief money, during an interview on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
The first letter was dated April 23 and detailed some of her aid requests. In that letter, Zimmer told Christie funding “cannot be dependent on future development.”
Zimmer said the letter was written before she had a conversation with Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (R). Zimmer has alleged that Guadagno told her aid would be contingent on real estate development. Still, Zimmer told Cooper the letter was proof she was made to believe there was a connection between the two.
“I did feel that there was — you know, there’s always a lot of discussion about development. But … in those meetings, there was not a direct connection made, but there was pressure,” Zimmer told the CNN host. “It’s actually a progression leading up to something where they wanted to send me, you know, give me a very direct message because they felt like I wasn’t getting the message clearly enough, so she was sent in.”
The second letter Zimmer revealed on the show was sent to Christie on May 8. In that letter Zimmer described being “stunned” that Hoboken had not received more aid.
Christie’s office staged a conference call with reporters on Monday in which the head of the Governor’s Office of Recovery and Rebuilding argued Hoboken received $70 million of $100 million in aid it requested. However, most of the aid he cited went to individual residents and businesses rather than the local government.
Watch Zimmer’s CNN appearance below.
