Cuomo, Christie Hold Joint Campaign Appearance

The two governors who can't get the PATH running are going to keep you safe from terrorism - oh, and burnish their "national security" credentials at the same time:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will appear alongside New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday for the second time this month.

The governors will make the joint appearance in New York 10 days after coming together to announce a review of safety and security procedures to combat the threat of terrorism, according to Christie’s schedule.

They are slated to hold the briefing at 7 World Trade Center at 11:30 a.m.

Citing an “undeniable heightening” of terrorist activity, Christie, a Republican, and Cuomo, a Democrat seeking reelection, announced plans for a bi-state review of security procedures on Sept. 15.

The plan called for convening a meeting to review the review “initial recommendations” in 10 days, followed in 30 days by a report back to the governors “with any and all further findings and recommendations.”

“I spent seven years as U.S. attorney in the immediate aftermath of September 11. I’m acutely aware of what’s been done during those seven years and what’s continued to be done,” Christie said at the event earlier this month.

“We need to make sure that we are ahead of the curve on this,” he said.

The New Jersey officials leading the review — which includes more than 10 agencies between the two states — are State Police Supt. Rick Fuentes and New Jersey Homeland Security Director Christopher Rodriguez. In New York, it will be Supt. of State Police Joseph D’Amico and Homeland Security Commissioner Jerome Hauer.

If Christie's anti-terrorism plan has anything to do with bridge closures, it should go swimmingly.

Also, I love the "I spent seven years as U.S. attorney in the immediate aftermath of September 11..." jive - he has also been governor for the last five years and could have pushed for whatever review they're doing now in the past years too.

That he's doing it at the same time he's shedding pounds and visiting Iowa on a regular basis suggests this review is as much about politics as safety.

And of course Cuomo is running for re-election too and wants to make sure his GOP opponent gets no help from the National Governors Association in the election.

Christie has said he will not help GOP candidate Rob Astorino in the election, but holding two press conferences with Cuomo in the past month really puts an exclamation point on that.

It's like these two guys, Cuomo and Christie, are campaigning together - and why not, since they're good buddies, they've already coordinated Port Authority toll increases in the dark together and conspired to make sure nothing untoward comes out for Christie in the Bridgegate scandal?

Bridgegate Pulls Down Christie's Poll Numbers

From Politico:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s net approval rating is at its lowest point in three years, a new poll says.

According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, 49 percent of New Jersey voters approve of the Republican governor’s job performance, compared with 47 percent who disapprove. That net approval rating is Christie’s lowest since August 2011.

The poll shows that Christie — who is considering a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 — is being pulled down in the Garden State, largely because of the Bridgegate scandal and the state’s economic woes.

Many of the state’s voters still have significant distrust of the governor regarding the September 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures. Twenty-six percent believe Christie personally ordered closures, compared with 64 percent who don’t. A plurality of voters — 47 percent — believe the governor was aware his aides were causing the traffic jams at the time, compared with 45 percent who think his staffers acted alone. Christie has consistently denied both that he caused the closures and that he knew about them beforehand.

New Jersey voters also have concerns Christie’s honesty. Forty-nine percent of the state’s voters don’t think he is honest and trustworthy, up 8 points from January and 29 points from 2009.

The governor receives low marks for his handling of the state’s budget problems. Fifty-one percent of voters disapprove of Christie’s handling of the economy and jobs, while 44 percent of voters approve. Forty-eight percent disapprove of his handling of the state’s budget issues, compared with 44 percent who approve.

He's above water - but barely.

He's going after pensions again, but he's underwater on his handling of budget matters, so he doesn't have much juice behind him.

And there's a huge surge in people who think he's a lying weasel - in 2009, 20% thought he was dishonest and untrustworthy, now it's 49%.

There's still a US attorney investigating Bridgegate, conflicts of interest involving his advisers and the Port Authority and the allegation that his lieutenant governor tried to extort a construction project for Sandy aid in a Hoboken parking lot.

In addition, he is under investigation for diverting Port Authority funds to the Pulaski project.

And this guy thinks he can run for president?

Everyone Hates Andrew

That's the takeaway from Maggie Haberman's Politico story on Andrew Cuomo:

As of mid-Thursday afternoon, no Democrats in the state had come forward with statements backing the governor, and party operatives were loath to discuss his case publicly. Many pols in his party have existed in fear of Cuomo since he won a race for state attorney general in 2006, outlived Eliot Spitzer politically and became the governor in 2010 with a pledge to tame Albany.

No Democratic operative contacted by POLITICO wanted to discuss the Cuomo issue on the record.

 “Are you kidding me? I’d get killed,” said one in-state operative, who gamely offered to speak at length on background.

Cuomo has governed the state Democratic Party with something of an iron fist, which many New Yorkers saw as a refreshing change after the Wild West atmosphere that marked Albany politics under his predecessors. But Cuomo’s approach has also earned him enemies who have seethed quietly.

Cuomo has done little to help other Democrats, even in his own state, typically only endorsing candidates in races when it becomes overwhelmingly clear that they will win. He has aligned himself with state Senate Republicans in the past, though that ended this spring, when he disavowed them as part of a public plea for support from the liberal Working Families Party. His approach gave him an aura of independence, but it’s leaving him politically isolated now.

The press, which has often felt bullied by him, appears emboldened to challenge him now that he faces the biggest crisis of his tenure

 Cautious to a fault, Cuomo is known to game out situations and scenarios endlessly, trying to see what pitfalls may lay around the corner. But as has been the case with others in the governor’s office in recent years, he suddenly seems to be overtaken by events.

As attorney general, Cuomo once investigated his predecessor Eliot Spitzer’s alleged use of state police for political purposes and was often accused of making tactical leaks in the case. Now Cuomo is learning, as Spitzer did, how lonely Albany can be.

“You can’t actually have everyone in the world hate you,” said one New York Democratic operative. “That was true with Eliot, true with Christie, and certainly true with Andrew.”

I've written this about Cuomo as I have written it about Christie:

These guys engender fear and hatred in everyone around them and while they're up and in control, that keeps people in line.

But once there's blood in the waters, all bets are off.

Now both Christie and Cuomo have federal prosecutors looking into them.

And while many politicos in both New Jersey and New York are waiting to see what happens in the legal sphere before jumping full-on to Christie and Cuomo, if either gets dinged legally, the sharks will circle and chomp.

And that goes for the press as well as the politicians.

The Close Ties Between Christie And Cuomo

Zach Fink has more on the close ties between Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo in his State of Politics piece exploring why Christie, as head of the Republican Governors Association, may not be helping GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino against Governor Cuomo in this year's election:

Finally, there is the Cuomo-Christie connection. Astorino raised this on Tuesday, suggesting Cuomo may have helped Christie keep a lid on the Bridgegate scandal by remaining quiet and even claiming he knew nothing about it weeks after his handpicked Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye indentified the lane closures on the Fort Lee side of the GWB as a possible violation of law.  There are other connections between the two neighboring Governors as well. One of Christie’s top political strategists Mike DuHaime is an Partner at Mercury public affairs. Mike McKeon is also an Partner at Mercury, where he once headed up “Republicans for Cuomo” in 2010. McKeon also helped spearhead a “conversation” with Republicans for Governor Cuomo at the Harvard Club earlier this year.

So, the two Governors, who are known to talk frequently on the phone, do have some connections. After being snubbed by Christie in such a heavy-handed and mean-spirited way, it stands to reason that Astorino will no longer be reluctant to point those out going forward.

Last week I posted how Cuomo and Christie used Christie's Port Authority cronies - the same ones involved in Bridgegate - for some political gamesmanship around Port Authority bridge/tunnel toll hikes and a PATH fare increase.

That's another connection the two have - playing games with the Port Authority that are mutually beneficial for them politically.

Zack Fink makes pretty clear in his State of Politics piece that Christie has thrown support to some "lost causes" as head of the RGA, so whatever the reason Christie won't help Astorino now, it has nothing much to do with Astorino being down 37 points.

The more you learn about the ties between Christie and Cuomo, the more you have to think they're helping each other out.

Governor Cuomo Used Christie's Bridgegate Cronies For Port Authority Toll Hike Games

Earlier I posted a Star-Ledger article from the March that revealed the games Governors Christie and Cuomo played with Port Authority bridge and tunnel increases as well as a PATH fare hike.

The gist was this:

Both governors wanted to raise the tolls and PATH fare but wanted political cover to do it.

So they had their Port Authority appointees play games with the fare and toll increases, releasing outrageous hikes in order to let the governors swoop in and "demand" smaller increases, thus looking like "heroes."

In addition, they made sure public hearings over the increases took place at times when the general public couldn't attend but members of construction unions that would benefit from work paid for by the toll increases could, thus Christie and Cuomo could say that some in the public were supporting the fare and toll increases.

In the end, Christie and Cuomo already knew what the increases were going to be, they just wanted some political theater to give them political cover.

It was, in the words of one former PA official, "all bullshit."

And guess who helped Christie and Cuomo play their bullshit games?

Some of the same people who played games with the George Washington Bridge:

BRIDGING THE SCANDALS

And, the sources said, the fictional plan was led by the same people who two years later would arrange the September 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures, which have engulfed the Christie administration in scandal.

The two were Bill Baroni, the former Republican state senator and GOP campaign lawyer named by Christie to the agency’s deputy executive director post in early 2010, and David Wildstein, the former political blogger and Republican mayor of Livingston, where he went to high school with Christie.
Baroni’s lawyer, Michael Himmel, said his client had “no comment” on the assertions.

Wildstein’s lawyer, Alan Zegas, called the officials' version of the toll hike “inaccurate.”

He did not specify how. He also suggested there was a conspiracy to tar his client. “It is a snippet, and a not fully accurate one, of reality,” Zegas said.

The Christie administration did not return phone calls or emails. Ranking officials at the authority also did not comment. Cuomo’s office likewise did not respond to calls or emails.

While none of those officials would comment, a committee chaired by Assemblyman John Wisniewski has subpoenaed all documents and correspondence between the Port Authority and the Christie administration regarding the toll hike.

Wisniewski was one of the original skeptics of the hike when it was announced, and he still isn’t buying it.

“My suspicion is — I think it’s pretty well understood as fact — that the original announcement of whatever the toll increase was was all theater, so that would allow the governor to say, ‘No, no, it has to be lower,’ ” Wisniewski said in an interview following the most recent round of subpoenas.

For him and others, the toll hike scenario was too pat. How, the skeptics asked, could Christie not have known about the initial proposal when he had appointed two of his closest political allies to Port Authority leadership, Chairman David Samson and Baroni?

One source said complete responses to the latest subpoenas from the legislative committee would reveal that the bridge closures and the toll hike were engineered out of much the same playbook.

A minimum of agency officials were made aware of what was happening with the toll hike and sworn to secrecy under the implied threat of losing their jobs, the six sources said. And both actions included some of the same players.

“He’ll find emails,” the official said of Wisniewski, who co-chairs the joint committee with state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen). “And he’ll find the emails between Baroni, Wildstein and the governor’s office. And he’ll also find emails between Baroni and Cuomo’s office.”

So we now have a direct connection between Cuomo's office and the actors who carried off Christie's Bridgegate scheme using the same "playbook" to carry out the PA toll hikes and PATH fare increase.

Cuomo's PA man, Patrick Foye, has been subpoenaed by the US attorney in New Jersey investigating the Bridgegate matter.

I have posted before about Cuomo has played fast and loose with his own Bridgegate timeline (and if you haven't read the terrific Zack Fink Salon piece on that part of the story, please do so.)

I have surmised that if prosecutors dig deep enough, they will find a connection between Cuomo and Bridgegate.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino's campaign has insinuated that Christie is helping Cuomo in his re-election bid despite being the head of the National Governors Association in the opposing party, perhaps in return for Cuomo's help in the Bridgegate matter.

That we now know there is a direct connection between Cuomo's office and Christie cronies in the Bridgegate scheme means there needs to be a thorough investigation of what Cuomo's role in these PA games has been.

I am hoping Paul Fishman, the US attorney in NJ, is doing some of that investigating because I am doubtful that Dems in the NJ Assembly and Senate are going to do it no matter what Wisniewski or Weinberg say.

And if not Fishman in NJ, then perhaps Preet Bharara in New York as part of the larger Moreland mess - he is allegedly looking into Cuomo's interference in the Moreland Commissions subpoenas of his own donors.

It's pretty clear Cuomo's got some funkiness going on at the Port Authority.

It's time to get to the bottom of that rank smell.

Governor Cuomo Plays Pre-Election Games With Bridge/Road Toll Hikes

It is important that Governor Cuomo be made to publicly defend what his administration is doing here:

ALBANY—The state Public Authorities Control Board on Wednesday approved a controversial loan for the Tappan Zee replacement bridge, but not before the amount was cut in half without explanation and officials admitted for the first time there would be a toll hike to pay for the project.

The board voted to approve a $255 million loan from the state clean water fund to pay for parts of the $4 billion bridge project. State officials acted as if that was the plan all along, even though a printed copy of the meeting agenda included the original $511 million request that was to be voted on Wednesday. The Environmental Facilities Corporation, largely comprised of appointees by Governor Andrew Cuomo, approved the full loan last month.

Thruway Authority director Tom Madison admitted at the meeting that bridge tolls would likely rise next year to help pay for the replacement, but would not say by how much. The admission was the first acknowledgement by the Cuomo administration that systemwide toll hikes are coming, but after the election.

Cuomo is using money from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, money that is meant for sewer upgrades, but he managed to finagle it to build a bridge instead, one that he is touting as a major accomplishment of his administration.

But not everyone thinks Cuomo's doings are on the up and up:

Republican Senator John DeFrancisco of Syracuse, who threatened to vote against the loan weeks ago, said he was the one who cut the $511 million in half because not all of the funds would be spent appropriately.

“We got half of the loan off the table until we see what's being done with this part of the project to make sure it's spent appropriately,” DeFrancisco said.

DeFrancisco said $100 million was for engineering and other items that were “difficult to pin down.” He said he was concerned the Cuomo administration had “fudged” some of the intended uses of the loan because they had nothing to do with environmental projects.

“What this is all about is the Thruway Authority and, indirectly, the governor doesn't want to be able to say what the actual increase in the bridge toll is going to be, that's what it amounts to,” DeFrancisco said. “The plan is obvious, borrow money and then pay for it out of tolls.”

This is similar to the game Cuomo played with toll increases on the NY/NJ bridges and tunnels, as well as the PATH fare - though that time he had help from his pal, New Jersey Criminal-In-Chief Chris Christie.

It's called "Head Fake The Toll Hikes":

On Aug. 5, 2011, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey issued a jaw-dropping proposal to immediately raise bridge and tunnel tolls by $4 for E-ZPass subscribers and $7 for cash customers, followed by another increase in 2014. The proposed hikes amounted to a 75 percent increase for E-ZPass users and 112.5 percent for those paying cash.

The authority also proposed PATH fares go up $1, from $1.75 to $2.75.

The reaction was swift and angry, with commuters and lawmakers blasting the increases.
Gov. Chris Christie, who said he had no advance knowledge of the proposal, was among them.

“You’re kidding, right?” Christie told reporters three days after the announcement, describing what he said when briefed on the proposal.

But within two weeks, after a blizzard of 36 press releases by the Port Authority on behalf of toll hike supporters and after public hearings packed with union laborers backing the plan, Christie and his New York counterpart, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, consented to a more modest increase. Even then, the governors conditioned their approval on a top-to-bottom financial review of the agency.

The thing is, a former Port Authority official told The Star-Ledger, “It was all bullshit.”
From the start, the fix was in, said that former official and five others who occupied key Port Authority posts when the toll hike was rolled out and eventually approved.

The whole process, the authority officials said, was orchestrated from the outset to make the governors look good even as they reached deeper, through the long arm of the authority, into the public’s pockets.

The former Port Authority officials (five who are no longer with the agency and one who is still there) outlined the strategy and execution of the plan in separate interviews with The Star-Ledger. Each asked that their names not be used because they feared repercussions from speaking out even after they had left the agency.

The first proposal disclosed to the public, the former officials explained, was deliberately inflated. Also planned was Christie and Cuomo’s shocked — shocked! — reaction and an unusual one-day series of eight public hearings. Those hearings were all held during the morning or evening rush hours to discourage attendance by irate commuters, but were stacked with union members who backed the hike because of the construction jobs it would fund.

All this, the sources said, was designed to set up the governors’ ostensibly reluctant approval of a more modest hike, accompanied by their stern admonitions that this was it and that the agency had better get its financial house in order once and for all.

But it was all Hollywood on the Hudson, the six sources said, scripted all the way through.

“They knew what the toll increase would be,” said one former official. “They set the governors up to look like heroes. It was all a farce.”

BTW, the PA officials Cuomo and Christie played "Headfake The Toll Hikes" with were some of the same officials involved in Christie's Bridgegate - Bill Baroni and David Samson.

So if you're looking for a connection between Cuomo and Bridgegate, there is one - he got help in his PA toll hike game from the same guys who worked the GWB bridge closure.

In any case, the game Cuomo is playing with the toll hikes around the state as a consequence of the TZB work is the same game he and Christie played with the Port Authority toll hikes and PATH fare increase.

And, to quote the former PA official when talking about the Port Authority toll hikes that were engineered in such a way as to make the governors look like heroes by lowering the increases from what was originally released, "It's all bullshit."

Cuomo needs to be called on this BEFORE the election - how much are the tolls going up on the bridges, tunnels and roads as a result of the TZB work?

Why is there no plan available for the TZB to be viewed by the public?

Why hasn't Cuomo owned up that there would have to be toll hikes?

Cuomo needs to be held accountable here.

What Does Move By US Attorney In NJ Mean For Governor Andrew Cuomo?

From the Wall Street Journal:

New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman has asked a legislative committee investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures to hold off on calling nine important witnesses, according to people familiar with the matter.

The people Mr. Fishman wants to question first includes Mike DuHaime, a top political strategist for Gov. Chris Christie ; Charles McKenna, the governor's former chief counsel; Mark Sokolich, the Fort Lee, N.J. mayor who Democrats believe was punished with the lane closures after he didn't endorse Mr. Christie, and several current and former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials.

...

Mr. Fishman's requests to hold off on key individuals could mean that his criminal investigation is progressing. Prosecutors don't want witnesses to testify before the legislative committee until they come in to speak before investigators, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

...

 

Mr. Fishman's requests focused heavily on Port Authority officials. He asked the committee not to speak to the agency's executive director, Patrick Foye, a New York appointee who ended the lane closures when he discovered them, and Nicole Crifo, the governor's counsel in a unit devoted to public authorities.

Mr. Fishman had also said the committee needed to wait on the Port Authority's deputy executive director, Deborah Gramiccioni; Philip Kwon, the agency's deputy chief counsel who helped officials prepare for questioning from lawmakers; Philippe Danielides, a senior adviser to the authority's former chairman David Samson ; and the agency's police union president, Paul Nunziato.

The problems here for Christie are obvious.

Less obvious is what problems Christie's fellow Port Authority governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, may have with his PA officials talking to the US attorney in New Jersey.

 As Zack Fink wrote at Salon in May:

Another unwelcome development for the governor flew mostly under the radar, and has national implications. While the George Washington bridge scandal focused exclusively on the role of New Jersey governor Chris Christie, the bridge is controlled by a joint New York-New Jersey bi-state authority – and last week Cuomo’s hand-picked Executive Director of the Port Authority, Patrick Foye, was issued a subpoena by the New Jersey legislative committee investigating the flap.

Investigators believe there are omissions in the carefully crafted timeline put forth by the Cuomo Administration about what they knew about the lane closures, and how they responded. ”Lots of questions need to be asked to fill in the blanks,” the committee’s Co-Chair John Wisniewski told Salon.

In a worst-case scenario, Cuomo’s version of events could come under great scrutiny and cause a number of new political and legal headaches. In a best-case scenario, he can no longer simply wave off questions about the issue as merely a New Jersey problem – and his office’s communications may now be exposed to investigators.

Maybe Cuomo did everything on the up-and-up during and after the bridge closures.

But maybe he didn't.

And if he didn't and Foye is covering for him (as Fink writes he may be), Cuomo may not be so comfortable having his PA talk to the US attorney investigating Bridgegate.

Is Chris Christie In An "Unholy Alliance" With Andrew Cuomo Over The Bridgegate Scandal?

Fred Dicker raises the question in his NY Post column today:

One of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s jobs as this year’s head of the Republican Governors Association is to help elect more GOP governors, but don’t tell that to people working on Astorino’s campaign.

“Chris Christie has done diddly squat to help the Astorino folks,’’ said a highly knowledgeable Republican insider.

“Either Christie has formed an unholy alliance with Cuomo in the aftermath of the Bridgegate scandal or he’s preoccupied with running for president. Either way, New York Republicans are noticing it and they’re unhappy about it,’’ the insider continued.

Last fall The Post disclosed that Christie had encouraged Astorino to challenge Cuomo and pledged his support — but that was before the politically damaging Bridgegate — which involved closing down George Washington Bridge lanes in Fort Lee to retaliate against a Christie political foe.

A prominent New York Democratic operative, meanwhile, told The Post, “The word on the inside of Democratic circles is that Christie has been working to help Cuomo, perhaps by providing some strategic advice.’’

We know that Cuomo and Christie have collaborated at least two times in an "unholy alliance" of Port Authority governors.

The first was the sham show they played over bridge, tunnel and PATH increases in which they colluded to push for the increases behind the scenes while publicly claiming they were trying to hold the increases at bay.

The second was when Christie called Cuomo over the Bridgegate scandal, as was first reported in the Wall Street Journal.

We know too that nothing happens at the Port Authority, even on the New Jersey side, that Andrew Cuomo isn't aware of.

And we know that Cuomo has some complicity in the Bridgegate case.  Zack Fink wrote this at Salon in May:

It hasn’t been a great few weeks for New York governor Andrew Cuomo. He got in a public spat with U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara for closing down an anti-corruption commission, his budget was roundly criticized by many in his own party, and a new poll shows him losing serious ground to his Republican opponent if he gets a challenge on the left.

But another unwelcome development for the governor flew mostly under the radar, and has national implications. While the George Washington bridge scandal focused exclusively on the role of New Jersey governor Chris Christie, the bridge is controlled by a joint New York-New Jersey bi-state authority – and last week Cuomo’s hand-picked Executive Director of the Port Authority, Patrick Foye, was issued a subpoena by the New Jersey legislative committee investigating the flap.

Investigators believe there are omissions in the carefully crafted timeline put forth by the Cuomo Administration about what they knew about the lane closures, and how they responded. ”Lots of questions need to be asked to fill in the blanks,” the committee’s Co-Chair John Wisniewski told Salon.

In a worst-case scenario, Cuomo’s version of events could come under great scrutiny and cause a number of new political and legal headaches. In a best-case scenario, he can no longer simply wave off questions about the issue as merely a New Jersey problem – and his office’s communications may now be exposed to investigators.

As I wrote back in May, this much is clear about the Christie/Cuomo relationship:

A) Cuomo knows more about the scandal than he is letting on
B) He's hiding when he learned about the closures and what he did after he learned about them
C) His Port Authority guy, Patrick Foye, is covering for him

Cuomo and Christie colluded to raise bridge/tunnel tolls and the PATH fare and as the Salon piece makes clear, they are on friendly terms, have met for dinner, and may have colluded on more than just the Port Authority fare and toll hikes.

It's time to find out if Cuomo helped Christie from his end in any way in this GWB scandal.

Here's hoping the NJ legislative committee looks to find out and whets the appetite of a US attorney in either New York or New Jersey to look more into Cuomo's complicity in the GWB mess.

With Astorino's campaign now alleging that Christie may be helping Cuomo behind the scenes for re-election, that Cuomo's using Bridgegate to keep Christie from doing his political duties as head of the Republican Governors Association to elect a Republican governor of New York, I think it's high time we get some light on just what Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's role in the Bridgegate cover-up has been.

What did he know about the closures?

When did he know about the closures?

Who told him about the closures?

What did he do with that information?

What did he tell Christie over the phone when Christie called him to turn down the heat on the Bridgegate investigation from the New York side?

What other conversations have Cuomo and Christie had about BridgeGate?

Something funky seems to be going on here and I only hope that one of the prosecutors looking into this mess is scrutinizing Cuomo as much as Christie.

Top Christie Aides In Constant Contact With Port Authority Chairman During GWB Closures Timeframe

More evidence that the squeeze is being put on former Port Authority chairman David Samson to give up Chris Christie or die in jail:

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s former chairman maintained constant contact with top members of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration during the week lanes to the George Washington Bridge were shut down, newly released phone records show.

David Samson, who resigned in March as chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, spoke several times to Christie’s chief of staff and a top aide the week motorists in Fort Lee heading over the GWB were ensnarled in traffic jams over the course of four days.

Samson also had phone contact with former Port Authority officials Bill Baroni and David Wildstein, who both resigned from the agency in the wake of the controversy surrounding the lane closures.

The 18 months of call logs indicate Samson’s phone contact with Wildstein, the official who received the infamous "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" email from a Christie aide, spiked between June and September. Before that, they rarely spoke by phone, the records show.

The calls, first reported by WNYC, were released by the legislative committee investigating the lane closures as supporting documents from the recent testimony of Christie’s chief of staff, Kevin O’Dowd. The records show Samson and O’Dowd were in frequent contact over the full 18 months.

Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who co-chairs the legislative committee, said today the calls raise credibility issues with the Christie administration’s narrative of the events.

"It does raise some serious questions about the accuracy of this story we have been collectively told by a number of people that this was just no big deal and that no one really paid much attention to it," said Wisniewski (D-Middlesex). "The calls seemed to indicate a heightened level of phone activity. The call logs, in particular, and the documents in general raise credibility issues with me."

The logs show a dozen calls between Samson and Baroni, with whom he regularly communicated over the phone, the week the lanes were closed. The two spoke for more than 20 minutes on Sept. 13, the day Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye ordered the lanes reopened. They also spoke on Sept. 16 shortly after records indicate Baroni was forwarded an email showing The Wall Street Journal was inquiring about the lane closures.

Samson and Baroni later exchanged three calls the day Baroni testified before lawmakers in November, assuring legislators the lanes were closed as part of a traffic study. Samson also spoke with Christie aide Regina Egea, who was slated to become the governor’s chief of staff, for 17 minutes the day Baroni testified.

Samson has declined to offer testimony for the legislative committee. Former two-time Christie campaign manager Bill Stepien and former aide Bridget Anne Kelly, who sent the email to Wildstein ahead of the lane closures, have also refused to testify.

Samson is refusing to talk to the legislative committee investigating the matter, but he's going to get the opportunity to talk to the investigating US attorney, as Esquire reported last week:

Paul Fishman, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, wades through the sewage of Christie’s stewardship. Two sources with intimate knowledge of the case say Fishman’s pace is quickening -- he has empaneled a second grand jury, and the U.S. Justice Department has sent assistant prosecutors and FBI agents to work the case.
 
“What’s taking the most time,” according to one source, “is separating what's viable from all the bad stuff they’re finding that may not be viable.”

Fishman’s challenge is to nail down specific criminal charges on several fronts -- the diversion of Port Authority money to fund New Jersey road and bridge projects; the four-day rush-hour closures of George Washington Bridge lanes in Ft. Lee; and a web of real-estate deals spun by David Samson, long a Christie crony, when he chaired the PA’s Board of Commissioners as Christie’s appointee. (One such deal, a stalled office-tower development in Hoboken, New Jersey, is central to a claim that Christie’s lieutenant governor told the town’s mayor that the state would withhold Hurricane Sandy relief aid from Hoboken if the mayor didn’t sign off on the development project.)

Whatever Christie says or does -- and whatever potential donors or Jimmy Fallon and his viewers think -- the question that truly matters is whether Fishman’s pursuit leads to the governor himself. Christie’s Port appointees -- not only Samson, but former PA Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni and his oddball sidekick David Wildstein -- all face near-certain indictment and are being pressed to hand up Christie, as is the governor’s former chief counsel, Charlie McKenna.

Wildstein, portrayed as the mastermind behind Ft. Lee’s traffic problems, has made proffers to Fishman’s investigators -- hoping to trade information to the prosecutor in exchange for gentler legal treatment -- but Fishman has cut no deals with anyone so far, and the looming indictments have encouraged Christie’s PA appointees to sing. “Don’t underestimate what Wildstein has on Christie,” says one source. “And Wildstein and Baroni have both turned on Samson. If Samson doesn't give Fishman Christie, Samson is toast.” 

With the news that the SEC and the Manhattan district attorney is also investigating Christie for stealing money from the Port Authority and using it for New Jersey bridge and road projects, Samson doesn't look like he's the only guy who's "toast" here.

Christie starts to look pretty toastie too.

How Many Christie Scandals?

Lots - as noted by a commenter at the NY Times:

So we can tack this investigation onto the original GWB lane closures, the Hoboken extortion accusations from Mayor Zimmer, the mis-use of Hurricane Sandy funds to for unrelated projects, and the numerous conflicts of interest by David Samson in his Port Authority role. Have I missed any? Mr. Fishman is going to have a full-time job just investigating the Christie administration's malfeasance. Someone needs to tell the Governor that dancing with Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show isn't going to help him at this point. It's all over for 2016.

A commenter at NJ.com puts Christie's predicament pretty succinctly:

The hits just keep on coming. Where there's smoke, there's fire.  I hope he gets his azz burned.

Indeed.

Chris Christie Has Second Bridge Scandal On His Hands

From the NY Times:

Investigations into the Christie administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have zeroed in on possible securities law violations stemming from a $1.8 billion road repair agreement in 2011, according to people briefed on the matter.

While the inquiries were prompted by the apparently politically motivated lane closings at the George Washington Bridge last year, these investigations center on another crossing: the Pulaski Skyway, the crumbling elevated roadway connecting Newark and Jersey City. They are being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The inquiries into securities law violations focus on a period of 2010 and 2011 when Gov. Chris Christie’s administration pressed the Port Authority to pay for extensive repairs to the Skyway and related road projects, diverting money that was to be used on a new Hudson River rail tunnel that Mr. Christie canceled in October 2010.

Again and again, Port Authority lawyers warned against the move: The Pulaski Skyway, they noted, is owned and operated by the state, putting it outside the agency’s purview, according to dozens of memos and emails reviewed by investigators and obtained by The New York Times.

But the Christie administration relentlessly lobbied to use the money for the Skyway, with Mr. Christie announcing publicly that the state planned to rely on Port Authority funds even before an agreement was reached. Eventually, the authority justified the Skyway repairs by casting the bridge as an access road to the Lincoln Tunnel, even though they are not directly connected.

In bond documents describing the Skyway reconstruction and other repairs, the Port Authority has called the projects “Lincoln Tunnel Access Infrastructure Improvements.”

The accuracy of this characterization is now a major focus of the investigations, according to several people briefed on the matter. Under a New York State law known as the Martin Act, prosecutors can bring felony charges for intentionally deceiving bond holders, without having to prove any intent to defraud or even establish that any fraud occurred.

Two veteran prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office public corruption unit are working with two S.E.C. lawyers who are experts in such bond issues, one person briefed on the matter said, and another noted that while the agencies were each conducting separate parallel inquiries, they were working together.

In addition to criminal charges under the Martin Act, the investigations could result in civil action under the Martin Act or by the S.E.C., under federal securities laws.

The office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., and the S.E.C. declined to comment.

As a New Jersey resident who takes the PATH train in every morning, I would love to see Christie go to jail just for canceling the Hudson River tunnel project.

They keep building and building in downtown Jersey City, 30 story buildings, 40 story buildings, 50 story buildings - rentals, condos - without any consideration of how people are going to get to work in Manhattan in the morning.

The Journal Square section of JC is next, with KRE set to build three huge towers next to the transit center - a project that may inaugurate a bunch of building in Journal Square as the KRE project seemed to do when they build it above Grove Street in in the 2000's.

As things stand now, the PATH (Pathetic Attempt At Transporting Humans) is loaded near capacity between 8 AM and 9 AM - and that's with the system running trains every two minutes to both 33rd Street and the WTC.

How they expect to get all these people to and from work every morning (most will work in NYC) is beyond me - and it's clearly beyond the crooked real estate developers and crooked politicians they grease to get the permits like Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop.

Certainly the tunnel project would have taken years to complete, but if it could have taken a little of the burden off the PATH, that would have been a big thing.

Instead, Christie canceled it and diverted the money elsewhere in order to keep from raising the gas tax.

I do hope they get the crook on this Pulaski mess as much as they get him on the GWB scandal and the Hoboken shakedown and send his corrupt ass to jail for years.

One way or the other, it does look like Christie is, in the words of Christie mentor Ralph Kramden, going to "get his" before this is all over.

Last week Esquire reported that the US attorney in NJ was ready to indict four of the GWB actors, with their sights set on Christie crony David Samson, who they believe is ready to sing and tell all he knows about what Christie knew about the closures.

Grand Jury Investigating Bridgegate Continues Its Work

This is bad news if you're Chris Christie - and maybe if you're Andrew Cuomo too:

The top Port Authority executive who ended the George Washington Bridge lane closings testified before a Jersey grand jury probing the punitive shutdowns.

Pat Foye appeared earlier in May before the federal panel in Newark as its Bridgegate investigation continued, the Bergen Record reported.

The PA executive director declined comment about his secret testimony.

Emails made public regarding the Sept. 9-12, 2013, lane closings on the busy span showed Foye ordering the reopening of all bridge access on Sept. 13.

Gov. Chris Christie has denied any role in the shutdowns ordered under the guise of a “traffic study."

Hard to know what Foye was asked under oath, but I wouldn't be too surprised if he was asked what the New York governor knew about the GWB closings, when he knew that information, and what he did about it.

Something to watch going forward if you're rooting for not only Chris Christie to be squirming in the scandal, but Cuomo as well.

Chris Christie's Former Campaign Manager Goes After Christie

Getting closer and closer to Chris Christie:

Gov. Chris Christie’s former campaign manager says he told the governor about plans to close lanes on the George Washington Bridge in December, contradicting Christie’s claims he had no prior knowledge.

Bill Stepien, who lost his job in the scandal, contends he told Christie about the GWB traffic plans on Dec. 12, a day before the governor told reporters his staff didn’t know about them. Christie issued a public apology on Jan. 9, claiming he was lied to by members of his staff on the controversy.

Stepien’s lawyer, Kevin Marino, blasted an internal investigation the governor ordered that concluded Stepien had misled Christie about the politically motivated September closures.

Marino released a letter Wednesday in which he demanded that Christie’s legal team retract “false and misleading statements” about Stepien in a report that clears the governor of wrongdoing. Randy Mastro, who headed Christie’s probe, responded “there is no basis for any correction.”

The rats have jumped off Christie's ship and it's every man for himself.

If Stepien can prove he told Christie about the bridge closures on December 12, a day before Christie said at a press conference he didn't know anything about them, he's caught in a direct contradiction, or, as we used to say in Catholic school, a lie.

Bridgegate Scandal Gets Closer To Chris Christie

From NJ.com:

Gov. Chris Christie tonight downplayed the sworn testimony his chief spokesman gave to the state legislative committee investigating the George Washington Bridge scandal earlier in the day, saying it didn't reveal anything new.

Michael Drewniak, the longtime press secretary in the governor's office, delivered seven hours of testimony today, stressing that neither he nor Christie knew about the controversial plan to close lanes at the nation's busies bridge last September or its alleged cover-up.

Still, Drewniak said then-Port Authority official David Wildstein told him in November, before the scandal erupted, that two Christie staff members — Bridget Anne Kelly, then the governor's deputy chief of staff, and Bill Stepien, his former campaign manager — were aware of the closings as they happened last fall.

Drewniak said he passed the information along to Christie's chief counsel, Charles McKenna, and McKenna told him he was "looking into it." That was before Christie made light of the lane closings at a news conference Dec. 2.

Drewniak explained that he didn't tell Christie himself of the information until after that news conference, saying he believed that by telling senior staff members, the issue was already "in the blood stream" of the administration.

Christie said during his monthly radio show tonight that he watched only 5-10 minutes of Drewniak's testimony and "doesn't remember all the different specifics" of the timeline in question.

McKenna, Christie's chief counsel, was "looking into" the lane closures in November, before Christie mocked the whole thing in a December press conference.

Hard to believe McKenna didn't "look into" that by going up the chain of command.

That doesn't mean there's evidence of that, of course.

But if they squeeze McKenna enough...

Governor Cuomo's Complicity In Christie Bridgegate Scandal Gets Some Scrutiny

Cuomo already has to worry about Preet Bharara's nosing around in his Moreland Commission wreckage and now there's this:

It hasn’t been a great few weeks for New York governor Andrew Cuomo. He got in a public spat with U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara for closing down an anti-corruption commission, his budget was roundly criticized by many in his own party, and a new poll shows him losing serious ground to his Republican opponent if he gets a challenge on the left.

But another unwelcome development for the governor flew mostly under the radar, and has national implications. While the George Washington bridge scandal focused exclusively on the role of New Jersey governor Chris Christie, the bridge is controlled by a joint New York-New Jersey bi-state authority – and last week Cuomo’s hand-picked Executive Director of the Port Authority, Patrick Foye, was issued a subpoena by the New Jersey legislative committee investigating the flap.

Investigators believe there are omissions in the carefully crafted timeline put forth by the Cuomo Administration about what they knew about the lane closures, and how they responded. ”Lots of questions need to be asked to fill in the blanks,” the committee’s Co-Chair John Wisniewski told Salon.

In a worst-case scenario, Cuomo’s version of events could come under great scrutiny and cause a number of new political and legal headaches. In a best-case scenario, he can no longer simply wave off questions about the issue as merely a New Jersey problem – and his office’s communications may now be exposed to investigators.

Read the whole piece by NY1 reporter Zack Fink over at Salon.

It's long but illuminating.

It becomes pretty clear by the end of the piece that

A) Cuomo knows more about the scandal than he is letting on
B) He's hiding when he learned about the closures and what he did after he learned about them
C) His Port Authority guy, Patrick Foye, is covering for him

Cuomo and Christie colluded to raise bridge/tunnel tolls and the PATH fare and as the Salon piece makes clear, they are on friendly terms, have met for dinner, and may have colluded on more than just the Port Authority fare and toll hikes.

It's time to find out if Cuomo helped Christie from his end in any way in this GWB scandal.

Here's hoping the NJ legislative committee looks to find out and whets the appetite of a US attorney in either New York or New Jersey to look more into Cuomo's complicity in the GWB mess.

More Bad Scandal News For Chris Christie

A few days ago there was a report that the US attorney in New York had issued subpoenas to Christie ally and chairman of the Port Authority David Samson over potential conflicts of interest at the Port Authority involving Samson's law firm.

Those subpoenas were retracted, perhaps because the US attorney in New Jersey had the jurisdiction in the case or because they had already drawn up the subpoenas and were working it.

At any rate, the US attorney in NJ is now acting:

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey issued a subpoena last week to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey seeking records relating to its chairman, David Samson, and contracts on two bridge projects worth $2.8 billion that he voted to award to construction companies with some ties to his law firm, according to people briefed on the matter.

The subpoena focused on Mr. Samson’s potential conflicts of interest. It was issued by the United States attorney’s office in New Jersey, which along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal inquiry into the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge and other suspected wrongdoing by current and former aides, appointees and associates of Gov. Chris Christie, the people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

The interest in Mr. Samson, a close political ally of Mr. Christie, represents a significant widening of the scandal that has grown out of the closing of two bridge access lanes in Fort Lee, N.J., in September.

Grab some popcorn, watch the show - Christie's now got three scandals dogging him: Bridgegate, Sandy Aid and the Samson/Port Authority conflict of interest case.

Christie taunted public employees and union workers at a town hall last night:

Embattled New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) once again faced a crowd of angry hecklers at a town hall on Tuesday, but blamed “public sector unions” for the outburst.

“Governor Christie, we are here to demand, you stop your corrupt uses, of Hurricane Sandy money!” the group shouted during an event in South River. “There are still families without homes who have received no aid.”

As police forced the demonstrators to leave the room, Christie called himself a “soothsayer” for having predicted that he would be heckled, according to NJ.com.

“Congratulations, everybody,” the governor quipped. “You are now seeing the latest gift given to you by the public sector unions in the state of New Jersey. This is what they do.”

As the scandals dogging Christie continue to broaden, we may just get a chance to mock Chris Christie as police cart him off in handcuffs.

Chris Christie Has Three Scandals Dogging Him

The Newark Star-Ledger editorial board was brutal on Christie last night.

The DN editorial board is brutal on him this morning:

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men will never put Chris Christie together again if New Jersey’s governor fails to refute the accusation that he knew of the George Washington Bridge lane closures as they were taking place.

In that event, Christie’s governorship is over and he should prepare to face a federal criminal probe as a private citizen. Resignation would be a must. Otherwise, impeachment would be a snap.

Christie stands on the brink of ruin thanks to David Wildstein, the high school pal who, as his Port Authority enforcer, ordered the closures that plunged Fort Lee into four days of gridlock.

Wildstein’s lawyer on Friday released a letter that paints Christie as one of the most bold-faced liars in modern political history. And Christie’s response, amounting to one great big dodge, did nothing to dispel the notion.

Attorney Alan Zegas stated that “evidence exists . . . tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference.”

Here are just some of Christie’s declarations at that marathon grilling:

“I had no knowledge of this — of the planning, the execution or anything about it — and that I first found out about it after it was over.”

And:

“I would never have come out here four or five weeks ago and made a joke about these lane closures if I had ever had an inkling that anyone on my staff would have been so stupid but to be involved and then so deceitful as to just — just to not disclose the information of their involvement to me when directly asked by their superior.”

And:

“I knew nothing about this. And until it started to be reported in the papers about the closure, but even then I was told this was a traffic study.”

Coupling unequivocal denials of that kind with sanctimonious claims of true-blue, on-the-merits governing, Christie has tried to ride out mounting evidence of thuggishness and cronyism at the heart of his administration.

Emerging facts suggest that Christie forces applied Port cash on projects that helped connected pals, while Hoboken’s mayor accused Christie’s Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno of threatening to withhold Hurricane Sandy funds unless the mayor acted on a politically connected development.

Arising out of complex transactions, the charges and denials swirl indefinitely. What Wildstein’s lawyer has said is different. He released his letter as part of an effort to have the Port Authority pay Wildstein’s legal bills, apparently on the ground that he was acting in his official capacity, on orders from above, when he closed the lanes.

Wildstein either has the evidence that Christie knew of the closures or he doesn’t. He can either “prove the inaccuracy of some” of Christie’s statements about Wildstein or he can’t. Wildstein must release the full file.

Meanwhile, it was laughable of the Christie administration to claim that the “lawyer confirms what the governor has said all along — he had absolutely no prior knowledge of the lane closures before they happened.”

Wildstein never alleged “prior knowledge.” He claims Christie was aware of the closures while they were in place. Resolution of that huge conflict will determine whether Christie forfeited his governorship as man whose ego, ambition and tough-guy image threw honesty off the bridge.

It really does come down to this - if Wildstein has documented proof to back up the claim that Christie made false statements about Wildstein at his press conference in January, that Christie knew about the lane closures as they were taking place, then he's finished.

It's hard to fathom how Christie could come out for a two hour press conference and lie about something like that while throwing Wildstein under a bus, full well knowing that Wildstein would now have the impetus to fight back against Christie.

But desperate people do desperate things, and if Christie felt desperate enough in early January, he just might have done that.

In any case, we'll know soon enough if Wildstein has the goods on Christie and, as Wildstein looks to make a deal for immunity, other actors in this melodrama make look to do the same - Baroni, Stephien, and/or Kelly may decide it is no longer in their interest to hold back some information they have if Wildstein is dumping his info on prosecutors.

Christie seems to be in tough straits here, but I'm not quite ready to put a fork in him and declare him done.

Still, as the GWB mess gets worse for him, he also has the Hoboken/Rockefeller Group scandal and the Sandy slush fund scandal growing as well.

Three full scandals dogging Chris Christie less than three months after he was re-elected by 22.5%, made head of the Republican Governor's Association and declared the early frontrunner for the 2016 GOP presidential race.

Now it's starting to look like he'll be lucky if he avoids prison.

How quickly things change.

What Was Andrew Cuomo's Involvement In The Christie BridgeGate Scandal?

From Maggie Haberman at Politico:

The Wall Street Journal, ahead on the Bridgegate story throughout the scandal, reported in December that Christie reached out to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who co-controls the Port Authority, to ask him to turn down the heat on the internal review of what happened.

It was Cuomo’s appointee, Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye, who called out the Christie appointees about the lane closures in Fort Lee in real time, the subpeonaed documents reveal. And according to the Journal piece at the time, Christie asked Cuomo to have Foye back off, at a point when interest in the scandal was intensifying.

A Cuomo spokesman denied the call took place when the story came out, although the Journal stood by its story. There’s also been no indication that Foye eased his foot off the gas internally. Still, given that the two governors have had a decent working relationship and given their shared control over the agency, it’s within the realm of possibility that they spoke about an issue that was gaining press attention. What Cuomo was aware of has become a point of intrigue in Empire State circles.

Christie and Cuomo are potential rivals for the 2016 presidential race.

There's no reason for Cuomo not to want to stick the proverbial shiv into Christie now and weaken him via this scandal - and he had the leverage to do it.

I have a hard time seeing Cuomo looking to protect Christie in this matter or failing to capitalize on Christie's weakness as a result of it.

I can see Sheriff Andy giving Christie some niceties over the phone, then telling Foye and his own PA people to keep leaking, keep the pressure on.

Having watched Cuomo for a while now, that seems to be his M.O. - he's no less a "steamroller" than Spitzer, just slightly more subtle (or sneakier, if you will) about it.