Christie Crime Digest Volume III

[rocktivity]

56. Is Christie's publicly-financed self-exonerating Mastro report about to come back to haunt him?

Last edited Sat Jun 6, 2015, 11:18 AM - Edit history (3)

Talking Points Memo:...(T)here is something going on in the pre-trial maneuvering that could turn into a real headache for the governor. Last week, Bridget Anne Kelly’s attorney...filed a request with the presiding judge (Susan D. Wigenton) to be given the power to subpoena Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher. That’s the law firm Christie hired last January – at public expense – to investigate his administration and produce the so-called “Mastro Report” that exonerated him from any culpability in both Bridgegate and allegations leveled against him by the Mayor of Hoboken relating to Hurricane Sandy relief aid...

Bridget Kelly’s attorney is asking the judge to subpoena are the notes and transcripts that Gibson Dunn’s attorneys used to draft the “Mastro Report,” the report which exonerated the Governor and tossed the now-indicted former associates under the proverbial bus...Mastro and his team interviewed 75 witnesses, the vast majority of whom worked in the Christie Administration...Bridget Kelly’s attorney wants to see who said what in the interviews that were used by Gibson Dunn’s team...Yet...the U.S. Attorney’s Office has (said) when they asked Gibson Dunn for those interview transcripts, they were told by the firm that none exist...

But the transcripts HAVE to exist -- they're required to by law!

According to the manual for outside counsel that’s put together by the N.J. Attorney General’s office, “outside counsel shall” – not may or might, but shall – “retain pleadings, correspondence, discovery materials, deposition transcripts and similar documents and work product for a period of no less than seven years.”

...(S)everal witnesses who’d been interviewed by Gibson Dunn told state lawmakers, under oath, that the Mastro Report mischaracterized what they recalled telling Gibson Dunn attorneys. Some even objected to conclusions drawn in the Report...If interview transcripts exist and repeatedly diverge from the narrative that was eventually laid out in the Mastro Report or the interview summaries, it raises the question of what Gibson Dunn has been doing with all that public money and why they were hired by Christie’s team in the first place...

Between the report being publicly financed and Mr. Fishman's office sending the court a letter of support, I don't see how the judge can say no. And speaking of finances, you New Jersey taxpayers will be delighted to know that negotiations to reduce Gibson Dunn’s fees brought them from $650 to $350 -- per HOUR!!!

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/just-when-christie-thinks-hes-outta-bridgegate-it-pulls-him-back-in


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