Bridgegate Scandal Gets Closer To Christie

Chris Christie is making like he doesn't have three scandals dogging him (Bridgegate, Sandy aid, Samson at the Port Authority), going about his business as if he can be a viable 2016 presiential candidate and an effective New Jersey governor.

But then you get news like this that pops up every now and then that let's you know just how tenuous a thread he hangs upon:

Records released today by a legislative panel investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closings link Gov. Chris Christie’s chief political strategist to discussions about fallout from the scandal, and show that Christie’s campaign manager was more in the loop than previously known.

The emails and text messages were disclosed in a court filing by the committee in response to objections raised by the attorney for the campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who contended at a hearing last week that the committee had no evidence showing his client was involved in the closings.

...

The committee contends the latest batch of communications show Stepien and Christie’s re-election campaign were more deeply involved in discussions about the lane closings after they occurred, and, on at least one occasion, coordinated a response with the governor’s office.

"What has been crystallized seems to be a political overtone in how the responses to the media were handled," said Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), a co-chairman of the committee. "Clearly, when they are sending communications to the governor’s primary campaign person, it at least indicates there is some political considerations on how this is handled."

It is becoming pretty clear that many people very close to Christie knew about this scheme either before it was hatched or were alerted to it while it was going on.

Christie maintains he didn't know anything about the scheme until afterwards.

The more Christie people we learn knew about the scheme either before or during, the less truthful Christie's denial seems.

And the more Christie people who get implicated in this scandal, the more likely one of them is to talk.