Christie's Wife Rakes In $500K For Part Time Work

This is nice work if you can get it:

According to new tax filings, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) wife, Mary Pat, who works part-time on Wall Street, earned $475,854 for her job as a director at Angelo, Gordon & Co. and $34,698 from Cantor Fitzgerald, the AP reports.

Be nice to have an independent prosecutor look into how Mary Pat makes that kind of dough for a part time gig and what that has to do with Christie's giveaway of the state pension funds to Wall Street.

I bet there's some connection there.

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.

Star-Ledger Says If Wildstein Allegation Is True, Christie Must Resign Or Be Impeached

Seems obvious at this point - if the Wildstein allegation that Christie knew about the lane closures is true, Christie is finished:

Forget about the White House in 2016. The question now is whether Gov. Chris Christie can survive as governor.

David Wildstein, the man who ordered the George Washington Bridge lane closures, is now pointing the finger directly at Gov. Chris Christie, saying the governor knew about the lane closures in September.

Wildstein claims there is documentary proof that the governor has been lying.

If this proves to be true, then the governor must resign or be impeached. Because it will show that everything he said at his famous two-hour press conference was a lie.

And not just a typical political lie — this was like a Broadway show of lies, and would leave Christie so drained of credibility that he could not possibly govern effectively. He would owe it to the people of New Jersey to step aside. And if he should refuse, then the Legislature should open impeachment hearings.

So for now, set aside the other scandals. Forget about the charge of extortion in Hoboken. Forget about the growing evidence showing that Christie used Sandy aid as a political slush fund, leaving the real victims short.

The lane closures in Fort Lee not only caused people to miss meetings, and lose out on business deals. It delayed ambulance responses in Fort Lee, and so put people's lives at risk. It was an abuse of government authority that was almost too reckless to believe at first.

The order came from Wildstein, and was triggered by an email from the governor's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly. That much is not in dispute. And that alone is damning evidence that Christie's administration is dangerously out of control. But if the governor himself was involved, this moves to a new level.

Is Wildstein telling the truth? He faces a criminal investigation himself, so he has a powerful incentive to give prosecutors damning information they can use against a bigger fish. That would give him leverage to negotiate a good plea deal.

But Wildstein says he has documents that prove the governor was lying at his press conference, when Christie blamed the event on the "stupid" actions of his own staff. And certainly, Wildstein was in a position to know the roots of this conspiracy. A Christie acquaintance since high school, he was appointed to a senior position at the Port Authority, despite having no expertise in transit issues. He was the governor's eyes and ears at the authority.

Others who have been implicated in this scandal will probably come forward now as well, hoping to strike deals with prosecutors before their testimony becomes redundant. And all this will happen as the administration answers dozens of subpoenas, and grapples with both criminal and legislative investigations.

When you layer on top of this the criminal investigation in Hoboken, and a separate investigation of Sandy spending by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, it becomes difficult to see how Christie can function. It should be clear even to him now that he should step down as head of the Republican Governors Association.

This is a shocking development. Christie is now damaged goods. If Wildstein's disclosures are as powerful as he claims, the governor must go.

Mary Pat is not laughing tonight: