A ‘jam’ session
N.J. Assembly to convene over GWB
THE New Jersey assemblyman leading the Gov. Chris Christie Bridgegate probe says he’s convinced “laws were broken.”
“We had public employees use public resources for a political purpose,” Assemblyman John Wisniewski told the Daily News Saturday.
“They closed the lanes of the George Washington Bridge to exact some kind of retribution on the town of Fort Lee or the mayor of Fort Lee.
“Last time I checked, that’s not legal.”
Christie has vehemently denied that he knew anything about the September lane closures. He has not commented on the mushrooming scandal since a marathon press conference Thursday.
Wisniewski, a Democrat from Middlesex County, said he doubts Christie’s story.
“For the governor to say that the first time he learned about this was the morning of Jan. 8 really strains credibility,” he told The Th News. N
“It’s just hard to believe that no one said to him earlier, ‘Hey, there’s this problem and we’re trying to resolve it.’”
Asked whether the Republican governor could be impeached if he’s exposed as a liar, Wisniewski called it “a possibility.”
“But I think we have a lot of steps that we need to get to first,” he added.
Wisniewski spoke out hours after State Assembly Speaker-elect Vincent Prieto said he hopes to subpoena even more emails and documents in the investigation of Christie’s administration and his vindictive appointees.
Prieto plans to summon Assembly members to Trenton on Thursday to extend their subpoena power in the probe of September’s four-day traffic jam — exposed last week as political payback.
Implicated in the Bridgegate scandal were top Christie aide Bridget B id tA Anne Kelly K ll and dt two of f the governor’s Port Authority appointees: Bill Baroni and David Wildstein.
Christie’s hand-picked choice for PA chairman, David Samson, was also cited in the newly released emails as a participant.
And the governor’s chief spokesman, Michael Drewniak, along with senior staffer Regina Egea, were forwarded emails about the scandal that Christie claims completely blindsided him.
“The noose is tightening,” state Sen. Barbara Buono, who lost to Christie in the November governor’s race, told The News on Saturday. “You wonder how people could be so drunk with power, how they could be so brazen in abusing it?” she said.
Buono said she was unmoved by Christie’s cascade of apologies after the emails indicated the l lane closings l i were a petty tt attack tt k on a local politician.
The traffic jam was reportedly a slap at Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for his refusal to endorse Christie, whose 2016 presidential hopes took a hit from the scandal.
“I knew back in September when this first surfaced what had happened,” said Buono. “This is Chris Christie’s administration. ... Of course he knew. Of course.”
Documents released Friday showed PA officials stonewalled for weeks as attention to the tieups at the world’s busiest bridge escalated.
Wisniewski blasted Baroni for telling the Assembly Transportation Committee in November that the bridge was closed as part of a traffic study.
“It’s disturbing that someone with as high a position as Bill Baroni would come to the committee and tell a fairy tale about a traffic study that didn’t exist, was never prepared and wasn’t authorized,” he said.