Or is just “assholes” all the way down? (But never up!)
I don’t see how the legislative committee is undermining the federal investigation. I have faith that the feds will grant immunity with all due caution so that we find out exactly how high the orders originated. If indeed Briget Kelly is the highest official in the chain, don’t offer her immunity. If she can sing and name someone higher, then let’s listen to her song.
I think it’s very likely that the traffic gridlock was planned well in advance and that Kelly’s email was just the signal that they had the go-ahead for the plan. Either Kelly felt empowered to authorize it herself or she was told by her boss, the chief of staff, or his boss, the governor.
We won’t know the motivation until somebody talks. We can speculate, but it neither builds nor undermines the case.
Again, the traffic jam is the least of Christie’s worries. Shaking down the Hoboken mayor, using witholding of federal disaster funds as blackmail, that’s where the real action is going to be. Then there’s the matter of Christie appointee David Samson, who is going down for the parking lot scam where he lowered the rental for the parking lot property to $1 per year in exhange for millions in legal fees for his law firm.
Let the feds do their work, let the legislature do their investigation. Right now, I give Christie a much better chance of taking up residence in a federal pen than I do of him moving into the Oval Office.
I believe the legislative committee errored when it pushed the 5th Amendment issue into court. If the court rules that Kelly and Stepien do not have to provide self-incriminating evidence of something the legislative committee only imagines exists, and I believe it will, it could prove more difficult for the federal investigation to break the 5th Amendment defense.
(post shortened)
“Well in advance” is a relative term.
*•*August 28: Port Authority Chief Engineer Peter Zipf emailed Wildstein: “As requested,” he attached a plan for reducing the rush hour toll lane allotment for Fort Lee from three lanes to two. “One additional scenario could be a merge down to one lane, if needed,” he added.
•August 29: Zipf provided a modified plan for Wildstein, including an option taking Fort Lee down to a single toll lane, “as discussed.”
•September 6: Darcy Licorish of the Port Authority Police Department sent an email indicating that Wildstein had instructed Robert Durando, General Manager of the George Washington Bridge, to implement the one-lane plan.
•September 9: Traffic hell in Fort Lee**.
It’s obvious that Port Authority’s Wildstein was shopping for possible options for Ft Lee. Maybe Port Authority’s Wildstein didn’t think that annoying another rabbi would get his point across? Whatever his point might have been, that is.
Christie’s own investigation, by his own lawyers, who did not even interview Christie Crony Wildstein or Christie Campaign Manager Stepien or Christie Deputy Chief of Staff Kelly, has cleared Christie. Surprised?
At a cost to NJ taxpayers of only a million or so.
Yes, it *is *assholes all the way down. 
As I understand the story, many of the people actually involved in the Great NJ Lane Reassignment refused to talk to “Christie’s own investigation” investigators.
Did “Christie’s own investigation” find everyone innocent or did they find there was not enough evidence to reach a conclusion?
You’re going to give us all brain cramps. So you’re stating that if they don’t have to produce something that doesn’t exist, that hurts the federal prosecutors? If I had to guess, it’s a foregone conclusion that Kelly gets immunity in order to finger Christie, so these mental gymnastics over the 5th amendment being somehow strengthened by possible missteps on the part of a legislative body will be rendered pointless.
You yourself have been strenuously equating those two concepts all the thread long. Why do you wish to distinguish them now?
And starting all the way up, in my opinion.
Brain cramps? Seriously? I would use the term, stumped. And who is us? Just so I know who you represent.
*Lawyers for Kelly and Stepien partially based their 5th Amendment claims on a parallel criminal investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office, which is seeking to uncover whether federal laws were broken. The legislative panel, which lacks authority to prosecute, wants to find out how high up Christie’s chain of command the lane-closing scheme went and why it was hatched.
…Lawyers for Kelly and Stepien also said the subpoena amounts to a fishing expedition, but the panel’s attorneys said the documents turned over so far make it reasonable to believe related correspondence exists and should be turned over.
…Stepien’s lawyer said FBI agents visited his client’s apartment and inquired whether he paid the rent on time; Kelly’s lawyer said agents sought to interview his client and her parents, but that no one was willing to talk.*
The political investigation is trying to get Kelly and Stepien to provided lots and lots of info that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the Great NJ Lane Reassignment. The judge is looking for some reasonable suspicion that there is evidence before denying 5th Amendment protection. Just because the panel’s attorneys said the documents turned over so far make it reasonable to believe related correspondence exists, doesn’t mean the judge is buying it. Especially when the political committee is looking into Kelly’s EX-Inlaws and Stepien’s landlord??? The political committee’s attempt to throw a really wide net (fishing) looks more like an act of desperation.
I don’t know if the federal investigation can work around a 5th Amendment ruling issued because the political committee was fishing?
Kelly and Stepien may have evidence that Christie was involved in the Great NJ Lane Reassignment. But prosecutors have to prove to the court that they have a reasonable expectation that such evidence exists. Simply saying that there are 10 emails doesn’t mean that an 11th email exists. If there is evidence that emails 1 thru 5 exist and that 7 thru 11 exist, there would be a reasonable expectation that email 6 exists.
Which two concepts are you referring to? Innocent until proven guilty? There is no proof that Christie was involved in the Great NJ Lane Reassignment? The media’s unproven rumors contradict the other media unproven rumors. I understand that you know what you’re referring to but I could use some guidance. Maybe quoting the post you were responding to?
*I’m doing the work, I’m baby-stepping, I’m not a slacker!
- Bob Wiley (Bill Murray) quote from “What about Bob?”*
Everybody can go home now.
Laughable, except for the “more than $1 million in legal fees paid by New Jersey taxpayers” part…
The Port Authority declined to pay legal bills for for Wildstein. Have they ever made a decision on whether or not to cover Baroni?
Funny how you always preface Wildstein’s name with “Port Authority” but never preface Kelly or Stepein’s name similarly. Still desperately clinging to that (long lost to everybody but you) perception of neutrality. It’s so cute.
I’m also still awaiting Doorhinge’s thoughts as to why Kelly instigated this traffic snarl.
That has not actually been proven, no DNA samples from the email from Rogue Loose Cannon Kelly have been analyzed.
To bring “everyone” up to date -
Jan 16, 2014
*A spokesman for the Port Authority said indemnification had been requested by David Wildstein, who ordered the Sept. 9-13 lane closures, and by his immediate supervisor, Bill Baroni, who approved his actions in advance.
The spokesman, Chris Valens, said the agency’s legal department was weighing the request.
Valens said the agency would not not provide severance packages to Baroni, whose salary was $291,000 a year, or Wildstein, whose salary was $150,000.
Baroni was appointed deputy executive director by Gov. Chris Christie in early 2010, and hired Wildstein with Christie’s backing later that year. Wildstein announced his resignation on Dec. 6, followed by Christie’s announcement of Baroni’s departure on Dec. 13*.
Jan. 24, 2014
Another Christie appointee who resigned, former Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, has also requested indemnification, a legal designation that would allow the Port Authority to cover his legal costs. His request is still under review, the spokesman said.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/nj-state-news/gwb-scandal-port-authority-won-t-pay-legal-bills-for-david-wildstein-1.693492
For two months, the Port Authority has been reviewing Port Authority’s Baroni’s request to pay his legal fees but the lame stream media hasn’t bothered to report on the issue.
Thanks.
Neutrality? How did you jump to the conclusion that I’m neutral? I’ve taken a strong position on the Great NJ Lane Reassignment story.
I’m waiting to hear the end of your story also. Especially since you chose to ignore my post MXXXIX where I agreed with elucidator’s post MXXXVI.
The billion-dollar development at the center of ‘Bridgegate’
(Warning! MSNBC! Your correspondent from the conservative wing of the extreme left accepts no responsibility for any infestation by liberal cooties!)
Dark conjecture: it was a shakedown. The investors and backers of the project had foolishly and irresponsibly failed to enlist the invaluable counsel and wisdom of Samson and Wolf, a law firm with a spotless record for wise counsel and assistance. A firm whose billable hours and resultant income has, by sheer coincidence, skyrocketed with the advent of the Christie administration.
Had the investors the wisdom and probity to enlist the invaluable assistance of Wolf and Samson law firm, I suspect that these problems might never have arisen. So, the lane closings were by way of gentle admonishment, like pouring a bucket of ice water in someone’s lap. Now, let it be noted: I have not found any reports to the effect that the projects investors did not secure the services of the estimable Wolf and Samson, a single ugly fact that would blow my theory to rags and tatters.
Nonetheless, I am willing to bet that this is the case, with the calm confidence of a Methodist with four aces.
Now, this might offer a ray of cold sunshine for Christie, like the sparkling clarity of a winter’s day in Minnesota, when the illusion of warm sunshine lures the unwary into the open, where a gentle breeze can strip the skin off your face in a matter of seconds.
If this sort of genteel extortion is the real crux of the biscuit, it allows the possibility that some of the major players here, such as Kelly and Wildstein, were unaware of the true nature of the fiasco. They might have actually believed that they were simply playing a game of political hardball, punishing the mayor of Fort Lee for his lack of vision and probity in his endorsements. Not exactly as innocent as lambs frolicking in the daffodils, but not greedy, grasping extortion.
Cold comfort.