Chris Christie’s chief of staff, Kevin O’Dowd, has been subpoenaed to testify on Monday in front of the New Jersey legislative committee looking into the George Washington Bridge scandal.
The two lawmakers co-leading the investigation announced the subpoena in a statement issued Wednesday.
“This subpoena is a necessary step in the committee’s bipartisan investigation into the lane closings and apparent abuse of government power and threat to public safety,” Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D) and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D) said. “Mr. O’Dowd is in a unique position to provide insight into what happened under his watch as chief of staff to the governor. We look forward to his cooperation and testimony.”
The short time frame between the announcement of the subpoena and the scheduled testimony is a break with the investigative committee’s past behavior. Until now, the lawmakers have issued subpoenas for testimony well ahead of the dates when individuals have actually appeared to answer questions.
O’Dowd has been Christie’s chief of staff since 2012, and perviously served as the governor’s deputy chief counsel. His time working with Christie stretches back to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey. Last year, Christie announced his intention to nominate O’Dowd to become state attorney general, but the nomination was put on hold, reportedly as a result of the investigation into the September lane closure, which caused a multi-day traffic jam in Fort Lee, N.J.
A spokesman for Christie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Not sure if anyone else caught any of that testimony yesterday from the port authority commissioner. It should have been informative and enlightening. Instead it boiled down to this: “I don’t know how anything works at the port authority, and I haven’t seen any emails or documents that were addressed to me, or if I have seen them I saw them too late to address your question. Also, that letter that Loretta Weinberg sent to me that was cc’d to several other people was mean and I took it personally, thus I’m going to sulk here like a child. Also, I am a fiscal conservative who believes in more money for the port authority. And please stop asking me to account for the port authority’s actions.”
These Christie people are pretty good at stone walling and showing incompetents the lot of them must have been. Did they have to show up at work to get paid? They obviously did nothing…by their own admission.
When will the Federal probe be done? ( that sounds really icky, btw…)
The Chief of Staff is in a very bad spot here. If he testifies and lies then its a perjury charge. If he refuses to testify then he is out of a job and under suspicion. If he testifies and tell the truth he risks being whacked by the New Jersey mob which had plans to develop the area next to the toll booth themselves and hence the motive to sabotage the city plans for a $1 billion development there.
I think it most likely that he pleads the fifth or refuses to show up claiming ‘executive privilege’. The committee wouldn’t have called him if they didn’t already know the answers to the questions they are planning to ask.
Kelly and Wildstein both offered to sing like canaries if they got immunity. Most likely they will only get a plea deal and have to serve some time. The feds have plenty of evidence on them and don’t necessarily need their help to bring down Capo Christie as well.
The feds don’t need their help in taking down Christie? On what evidence are you basing that assertion? I’d really like to know. As far as I’ve seen there is nothing linking Christie to the closing without Wildstein’s testimony.