You misspelled “complicit”.
What split? The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates under an interstate compact created by the U.S. Congress and both of the New York and New Jersey legislatures. Port Authority cops can arrest suspects in both NY and NJ.
Port Authority Wildstein ordered the lanes restricted in NJ and Port Authority Foye ordered the lanes opened in NJ.
Why would Wildstein initiate the blockage? That’s what the investigations are trying to find out. Did Wildstein have a motive? Did Wildstein order the “hit”? Are you convinced that Christie must be responsible because your intuition sez so? I’d like to see some actual proof.
There has been no proof presented so far that Christie is responsible for the Great Lane Reassignment but there is actual proof that Wildstein is up to his ears in it.
Offer Christie immunity to testify in front of a federal grand jury. That will tell if he knew anything. If he refuses, then threaten to charge him with obstruction and a host of other felonies.
Either way, what he knows will come out.
Again, there is no debate about whether Christie is “tied to” or “involved with” this. That is known with 100% certainty, since we have the direct quotes from his staffers and appointees on the subject. When your staffers and appointees do something, you’re involved. The question is merely one of the degree of his involvement.
And yes, of course the mayor should have contacted the Port Authority. That’s why he did contact them. Being a New Jersey mayor, he naturally contacted the New Jersey people in the Port Authority. It’s not his fault that that entire half of the organization is corrupt.
Wildstein is the Big Enchilada. Once they get him, the investigations will stop because there’s no place else to go. Unless they have to resort to Operation Candor…
So far Bridget Kelly is telling the committee to get stuffed. She hasn’t provided anything to them.
Subpoenas were issued and its in the courts now. Probably won’t do any good. Shes got a very good lawyer that will drag this out forever.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/GWB_scandal_Kelly_Stepien_to_defend_their_Fifth_Amendment_right_in_court.html
I wouldn’t be surprised if Kelly chooses jail before she rats out Christie.
After the shit he said about her? He declared her guilty, for all practical purposes, then went on to say that the reason he didn’t ask her any questions about it was because she was a liar, and he wouldn’t sully himself talking to liars. Neutron density balls.
Of course, you may be right, there is no accounting for some people’s sense of loyalty.
Loyalty can be bought. I can’t help but wonder who’s paying the tab for David Wildstein, Bridge Kelly and the others lawyers.
The Port Authority needs to be taken over by the feds. These clowns are too corrupt for words. Case in point- David Samson. This guy’s law firm was hired by the people who run a parking lot off the GWB to look for ways to maximize their revenue. They paid the firm over $1 million for this advice. The parking lot sits on land owned by the PA, and the company was paying the PA $900,000 per year to lease it. So after the parking lot guys write a big check to Samson’s law firm, Samson has the PA sign a 49 year lease for the lot at $1 per year. Effectively, he gave over $44,000,000 of public assets to his client. Then he has the balls to have the minutes of the PA meeting rewritten to retroactively recuse himself from the vote. What a fucking crook.
Offer Christie immunity from what? There’s no proof (yet?) of Christie’s involvement. It’s customary for prosecutors to offer immunity from crimes committed in exchange for information leading to the arrest of others. I suppose some kind of “blanket immunity” is possible but the prosecutors already know who the main players are and what they’ve texted. What could Christie provide except for self-incrimination and he already has 5th amendment protection to prevent that. The prosecutor(s), currently, have nothing to offer him.
You don’t offer immunity to the biggest fish. You offer it to the little fish so they rat out the big fish.
That’s one of the problems with holding multiple investigations at the same time. Information given, under oath, to one inquiry, for charges A, B, and C can be used in a different court case for charges D, E, and F.
How do you choose (maybe “limit your exposure to fines or jail time” is a better term?) which prosecutor you talk to, if any? The State committee might find that you’re a bad person and unworthy of the trust the taxpayers. The Feds might find room for you at a penitentiary.
This seems to be a debate. Christie is the head of the executive branch and what happens on his watch is his responsibility but there is no actual proof that Christie is the mastermind behind the Great Lane Reassignment debacle.
Wildstein is definitely involved and so is Baroni and Kelly.
We seem to have a different expectation of what a mayor should do. Besides being a goodwill ambassador, leader, decision maker, and king maker, they should also be expected to be a troubleshooter.
I judge Sokolich’s action, or inaction, by asking two questions. 1) Was this problem solvable? 2) Did Sokolich solve the problem? It’s obvious that the problem was solvable because the problem was solved. Unfortunately for the Ft Lee voters, Sokolich couldn’t, or quit trying, to find the solution. “Sorry voters, I can’t get the job done because Port Authority Wildstein and Port Authority Baroni won’t return my calls. Oh well, at least I tried.” Sokolich’s next political challenger will have a field day pointing out how they would have kept fighting for the Ft Lee voters. Something that Sokolich was unfit to do.
Blaming the victim while giving a free pass to the blundering, incompetent Christie. Do you think you’re fooling anyone but yourself with that gambit?
Come on, it’s not established that Christie is blundering and/or incompetent.
He could be malicious.
I’m not trying to “fool” anyone. Can I ask you what media outlet told you Christie is blundering and incompetent without offer you actual proof that Christie was involved in the Great Lane Reassignment? And why do you chose to believe them?
To me, the “victims” are the people who were caught up in the traffic jam. I assume that many of the victims called the mayor’s office demanding that the mayor “do something” to correct the situation. If you would like to make a case for Sokolich’s, let’s call it “limited ability” to deal with the traffic jam, I promise to give it the attention that it deserves.
If you have proof that Christie was personally involved in the Great Lane Reassignment debacle, I, and the various investigators, would love to see it.
There ya go. “Malicious” would make for a much better story. “Blundering” and “incompetent” could be used to describe Sokolich’s failure to resolve the traffic jam.
I’m going with maliciously incompetent.
Or maybe blunderingly malicious.
“Can I ask you what media outlet told you Christie is blundering and incompetent without offer you actual proof that Christie was involved in the Great Lane Reassignment?”
Even if he literally knew nothing about it, these were his staffers, and he picked them to accomplish their various duties. If his staff, whom he handpicked, were that incompetent/malicious/whatever, it directly reflects Christie’s incompetence pretty much by definition. “Governor, one of your lesser responsibilities will be to not needlessly fuck up the traffic in your state. Do you think your administration can handle that?”
I mean, really, would you give that kind of a blanket pass to any administration regardless of political affiliation?
We have the email showing how the blockage got ordered. I don’t know why you are saying Wildstein was involved as if this were some sort of revelation. It’s not like anyone is saying that Christie forged emails in Wildstein’s name. Conspiracies typically involve more than one person.
Look, people seldom go off and do something en masse that their manager won’t approve of - especially if they got hired by that manager, and are loyal to him, which seemed to be the case here. I’m waiting to see the evidence, but lack of evidence at this point is hardly evidence that Christie is innocent. Christie might have given the order directly or just said that something should be done to make the mayor sorry. I’m pretty sure Christie never said he was alright with it because people have different views. That’s not like him.
Why would Wildstein initiate this? Unless he was clearing lanes for UFO landings, I can’t think of anything. You obvious can’t either, but continue to buy it because it is convenient to let Christie off the hook.