from Brian Murphy at TPM
On Eve of Mega-Storm Christie Cans Transport Chief Over Expanding Bridgegate Scandal
Late this afternoon on the eve of a storm that is set to bring high tides and heavy winds to the New Jersey coastline, Gov. Chris Christie announced the sudden dismissal of the head of his transportation cabinet agency.
Jamie Fox, a veteran Democratic powerbroker, was chosen by Christie to lead the state’s Department of Transportation in late 2014. It was a surprising appointment at the time, and interpreted as a way for Christie to deploy Fox’s considerable political capital in the state legislature, which is led by the same Democrats who sanctioned the Bridgegate investigation.
What largely escaped notice at the time, however, was that Fox had been a top lobbyist in the state for United Airlines, the carrier now being probed in connection with a federal investigation of former Port Authority chairman David Samson, one of Gov. Christie’s top consiglieres.
Earlier this year it was reported that at a September 2011 dinner with United Airlines executives and Port Authority officials, Samson had asked now-former United CEO Jeffrey Smisek to create a route that would allow Samson to fly from Newark Liberty Airport to an airport in Columbia, South Carolina near Samson’s vacation home.
The airline agreed to this request, and continued to run the half-empty flight until three days after Samson’s resignation from the Port Authority in early 2013.
Jamie Fox, himself a former deputy executive director of the Port Authority, was at that dinner in his capacity as United’s lobbyist. When the airline initially stalled in creating the flight route, Samson removed an item important to the airline from the Port Authority board of commissioners’ meeting agenda. He communicated that move to the airline via Jamie Fox. Shortly thereafter, the airline began planning the flights to South Carolina – a route Samson and others reportedly called “the chairman’s flight.”
read the rest here:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/on-eve-of-mega-storm-christie-cans-transport-chief-tied-over-bridgegate-scandal
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