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Laxman

(2,419 posts)
Fri May 22, 2015, 10:53 AM May 2015

Bridgegate Is Not The End Of The Line...

for the investigation into Christie. As anyone who has visited the Christie Crime Digest knows, it's about so much more than that. Andrea Bernstein's excellent piece today highlights how former Port Authority Chairman Samson's escapades may be a much bigger problem for our favorite governor. The skies may not be so friendly in the future as they were in the past for Mr. Christie. I especially enjoyed this interesting fun fact:

Over one week in June 2013 – Christie’s re-election year – individual United managers gave $24,000 to his campaign; they’d never given anything like that before. McCarthy wouldn’t discuss the contributions.

That same week, United lobbyist Jamie Fox met with Christie’s top staffer at the Port Authority, Bill Baroni, who was then the deputy executive director. Fox, a close Samson friend, is now Christie’s transportation commissioner, and he is not taking questions about his work for United, a NJDOT spokesman said.


or this one:

Yet for the next year, according to documents and legal papers, United continued to try to persuade the Port Authority to follow through. At the end of September, United requested a meeting “before October 15 to make one last attempt to resolve our differences.”

On Oct. 7, United gave a $10,000 donation to the Republican Governors Association, which Christie was leading. The organization funded travel that allowed him to build national name recognition and connections for a presidential campaign.


and we know that a donation to the RGA under Christie is one of the safest and most lucrative investments a politically connected rich person can make!

But hey, read some more!

Turbulence Ahead: Chris Christie and the 'Chairman's Flight'

An hour and a half into a Friday night town hall meeting at Fury’s Publick House in Dover, New Hampshire, when reporters had already started to pack up their gear, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took one last question from a self-described “old Jersey girl.” Eileen Sahagian said she accepted Christie’s explanation that he knew nothing about the George Washington Bridge lane closures, but something was still bothering her.

“People with whom you work very closely somehow got the idea that that was okay, and I’m worried about a president who has people around him who feel that that’s okay,” said Sahagian, an educator from Durham.

Calmly but emphatically, Christie told her he had cooperated with three exhaustive investigations. “And I’m moving on from it now, because I lived through 15 months of three investigations that have now confirmed everything I said 15 months ago,” he said.

But though federal prosecutors say they are finished with Bridgegate indictments, they aren’t finished looking into Christie appointees at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Sources familiar with the investigation say witnesses have been interviewed as recently as this month.

Interviews and records obtained by WNYC indicate that New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman is examining whether a sustained influence campaign by United Airlines paved the way for a deal to lower United’s flight fees at Newark Liberty Airport by tens of millions of dollars a year. United’s overtures included a special flight route that benefitted the Port Authority’s former chairman David Samson; campaign contributions; fancy lunches and dinners; and meetings with top officials, including Christie.

The deal was never consummated – it blew up in the wake of the burgeoning Bridgegate scandal. Last December, United filed a legal complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration over the fees, and the matter is currently being litigated.


the rest of the article, along with a link to the audio is here: http://bit.ly/1GtkFDb
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Beach Rat

(273 posts)
1. This story has a particularly nasty smell to it.
Fri May 22, 2015, 11:32 AM
May 2015

I heard this on the radio on my way home from work this morning. When is this crap with the donations ever going to be stopped? It's hard to get mad anymore. Nothing's going to happen to Christie from this. It's all just a business expense for United. What's it going to cost us to get what we need? Some campaign donations and a direct flight to South Carolina for the chairman. Nothing big.We'll get millions in return. We're doomed as a country. Everythings for sale.

 

yeoman6987

(14,449 posts)
2. The only positive from all this is that
Fri May 22, 2015, 11:48 AM
May 2015

Christies political hope for president is over. He won't see a jail cell but hopefully he will go away forever when his term ends.

Laxman

(2,419 posts)
4. Well That's Certainly A Positive Outlook On Things.....
Fri May 22, 2015, 11:59 AM
May 2015

but I agree. It's very frustrating. The RGA donations in particular are maddening. I didn't know about the United donations until I read this, but all of the people doing business with NJ who donated and got lucrative contracts or favors is truly disgusting. Sheldon Adelson, Exxon Mobil, the Tobacco Lobby, the lottery company, Gibson Dunn (the firm that did the $7.5 million "investigation" for Christie) and so many more that I can't keep track. They ALL got something in return. Christie is most definitely for sale. One of these transactions has to be his downfall.

smokey nj

(43,853 posts)
3. Do you now find yourself wondering if there's a Christie connection
Fri May 22, 2015, 11:58 AM
May 2015

and/or political element behind traffic or transportation disruptions? It's always in the back of my mind now whenever anything gets fubar-ed and I wonder if it's just me.

Laxman

(2,419 posts)
6. There's A Lot Of Merit To That...
Fri May 22, 2015, 12:07 PM
May 2015

you know that the GWB tie up wasn't some original brainstorm from the three knuckleheads. The first thing that popped into Bridget Kelly's head was "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee"? This had to be some sort of stunt that had been used before in other locations, and probably since in others.

 

bettyellen

(47,209 posts)
7. Well they were suddenly planning to stop overnight service in our PATH trains recently- this would
Fri May 22, 2015, 01:14 PM
May 2015

Screw over many locals and devestate property values in both Hoboken and Jersey City as so many on the service industry commute late or early morning hours.
Now they just cut service 15% without warning.
He hates ours Mayors, and I have no doubt is encouraging the PA to screw with both towns.

 

bettyellen

(47,209 posts)
8. The way the PA has suddenly tried to cut back on PATH services? Totally connected...
Fri May 22, 2015, 03:05 PM
May 2015

They would have done a lot of wxinomic damage by closing down late evenings as planned.
Now, out of the blue- a 15% cut to service?
They are screwing around with both Jersey City and with Hoboken.

Laxman

(2,419 posts)
11. I'm Appalled By How Dimwitted The Press Corps....
Fri May 22, 2015, 05:06 PM
May 2015

has been as Christie makes his post indictment trips. He's not faced any tough questions. The reporters have been consistently uninformed or even willfully ignorant of the facts and the depth of what has take place on his watch. You expect it from Megan Kelly but the entire cadre of reporters has been astonishingly and almost unanimously blind to the facts. It isn't hard to do a little research and formulate some tough fact-based questions rather than behaving as a group of publicity agents promoting his tour of early primary states.

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