KABOOM: "Pay For Play" - Christie Used Sandy Funds for Samson

[kpete]

Last edited Sat Jan 18, 2014, 12:22 PM - Edit history (2)

Up w/ Steve Kornacki
?@upwithsteve
EXCLUSIVE: Mayor Dawn Zimmer says 2 Christie cabinet officials told her Hoboken Sandy aid would not come unless she approved a redevelopment
https://twitter.com/upwithsteve/statuses/424532041921613824

Turn on Up with Steve Kornaki. Hoboken Mayor on and claims Christie administration told her to "Move the Rockafeller project forward" and she' d get the Sandy Recovery money Hoboken was asking for. Update below.


.............


Rockefeller Group owns 4 acres out of 19 in north Hoboken and wanted it designated for redevelopment. Wolff Samson, David Samson's firm, was lobbying Hoboken to get the project going. Mayor Of Hoboken, Dawn Zimmer claims that the Christie administration told her that Hoboken would get its Sandy funds if she "moved forward with the Rockefeller project"

This amounts to the same kind of "Pay to Play" corruption that Christie went after as US Attorney. In 2009 Christie rounded up a lot of NJ mayors in a sting operation, including the previous mayor of Hoboken.

Given that federal funds are at the heart of this, I see federal corruption charges in the future for the Governor, Lt. governor and most of his administration.


MORE HERE:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/18/1270652/-Christie-Used-Sandy-Funds-for-Samson



AND MORE THIS A.M.:

Christie camp held Sandy relief money hostage, mayor alleges
01/18/14 08:30 AM—UPDATED 01/18/14 09:25 AM

Two senior members of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration warned a New Jersey mayor earlier this year that her town would be starved of hurricane relief money unless she approved a lucrative redevelopment plan favored by the governor, according to the mayor and emails and personal notes she shared with msnbc.

The mayor, Dawn Zimmer, hasn’t approved the project, but she did request $127 million in hurricane relief for her city of Hoboken – 80% of which was underwater after Sandy hit in October 2012. What she got was $142,000 to defray the cost of a single back-up generator plus an additional $200,000 in recovery grants.

In an exclusive interview, Zimmer broke her silence and named Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Richard Constable, Christie’s community affairs commissioner, as the two officials who delivered messages on behalf of a governor she had long supported.

“It’s not fair for the governor to hold Sandy funds hostage for the city of Hoboken” because he wants support for one private developer, she said Saturday on UP w/ Steve Kornacki.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/mayor-christie-camp-held-sandy-money-hostage

MORE:

Zimmer, a Democrat, said she wrote about the May 2013 incident in her personal journal, pages of which were shown on the MSNBC program where she was interviewed by host Steve Kornacki.

“At the end of a big tour of Shop-Rite and meeting, she pulls me aside, with no one else around and says that I need to move forward with the Rockefeller project. It is very important to the governor,” Kornacki said, reading from what he said Zimmer wrote that day in her journal..

“The word is you are against it. And you need to move it forward or we are not going to be able to help you. I know it’s not right, these things should not be connected but they are, she says. If you tell anyone I said that, I will deny it,” he read.

The program broadcast a statement from Governor Christie’s spokesman calling Zimmer’s account false. Zimmer said she would swear under oath about the incident, and challenged the others to do the same.

“The bottom line is, she said, it’s connected, the Sandy funding, it’s being held hostage for the city of Hoboken and it’s connected to the Rockefeller group project,” Zimmer said in an interview, referring to Guadagno. “She said that very clearly, and she said if you don’t move ahead, we’re not going to be able to help you.”

http://blog.northjersey.com/thepoliticalstate/9345/hoboken-mayor-accuses-christie-lieutenant-of-tying-sandy-aid-to-development-approval/

Another update:

In this account – supported by email, public records and Zimmer’s own diary entries – Christie’s inner circle was willing to cut off devastated constituents, muscle a friendly mayor and arrange public funds to finance a study for a project the governor supported.In a news conference last week, Christie rejected the notion that his administration engages in retribution or seeks political payback. Zimmer’s account paints a different portrait.

Zimmer claims they leaned on her twice to get their way

* * *.

“I was emotional about governor Christie,” she wrote in a diary entry she provided that is dated May 17, 2013. “I thought he was honest. I thought he was moral. I thought he was something very different. This week I found out he’s cut from the same corrupt cloth that I have been fighting for the last four years.”

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/mayor-christie-camp-held-sandy-money-hostage

[jsr]

1. Federal funds --> Federal charges.

[malaise]

2. That's the best part of this entire mess

[rurallib]

26. would Holder do anything?

or just stick it into a corner til his term runs out?

[questionseverything]

30. why hasnt holder already investigated?

according to palest.....

There's Still One Law Left to Break

Despite the Supreme Court stripping naked almost all restrictions on political expenditures, the Justices did firmly secure a critically placed fig leaf: "Independent" organizations may not, in any way whatsoever, plan with, secretly coordinate with, make or take suggestions from, nor consult with, a candidate.

The question is, did the Kochs and Christie drop the fig leaf? The answers are a hell of a lot more important than Sopranos-style score-settling like backing up a bridge.

Let's look at the evidence. The hidden funnel of funds into Our Children's Future followed on undisclosed meetings: the first, a two-hour rendezvous between Governor Christie and David Koch in New York in January of 2011. Just the two of them, no one else allowed in.

This concealed chat with Christie was unwittingly disclosed by David Koch himself: He blabbed about it to his billionaire buddies at a closed gathering he organized with his brother Charles. Koch did not know he was being secretly recorded. (Thanks to investigative reporter par excellence Brad Friedman for making the recording public.)

And this was the second secret meeting: The Kochs' closed confab in Vail, Colorado, on June 26, 2011. The guest of honor at the bash: Governor Chris Christie.

But you're not supposed to know that.
////////////////////////


because of the bradblog secret recording of cc and the kochs, we KNOW cc and the kochs "coordinated" but justice department seems asleep at the wheel

[randome]

3. Please let this drag out a little longer!

We need it to remind voters in November that the GOP is a crooked bunch. And that is much, MUCH more important than 2016. We already have that.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Sometimes it seems like the only purpose in life is to keep your car from touching another's.[/center][/font][hr]

[n2doc]

4. I hope they have hard evidence of this

Otherwise it will be swept under the rug as he said-she said hearsay. I have no doubt that it did happen, given how Crispie operates.

[HereSince1628]

8. Apparently the mayor kept a journal.

I expect there to suddenly be an epidemic of amnesia in the Christie administration, but it looks like there is a written record that might provide cause for as well as facilitate targeted searches of public and private communications records of specific persons.

[Laxman]

9. I Don't Need....

to see a journal. If Dawn Zimmer said this happened then this happened. Meet her in person, spend any time with her, and you would know that as well. Also, if the Rockefeller Group was involved two other things are also true: Political pressure was involved and Wolff & Samson were involved.

[HereSince1628]

12. I'm not questioning her integrity at all. It's a dated record of who and when

strong arming was used.

Crooked politicians do their damnedest to never leave a footprint behind. Yet, the text of that journal presents lighted highway signs for an investigator following the path.

[Laxman]

15. I Know You Weren't...

I was just trying to emphasize that there is an element of personal credibility here that bolsters her claims. If anyone tries to intimate that this is politically motivated or fabricated, they are barking up the wrong tree.

[ProSense]

5. "In this account..."

In this account – supported by email, public records and Zimmer’s own diary entries – Christie’s inner circle was willing to cut off devastated constituents, muscle a friendly mayor and arrange public funds to finance a study for a project the governor supported.In a news conference last week, Christie rejected the notion that his administration engages in retribution or seeks political payback. Zimmer’s account paints a different portrait.

Samson is corrupt.

<...>

Moments ago, Rachel Maddow did an entire segment on David Samson's connections to the scandal. Among the things that look fishy for him are an email from Wildstein that says, "Samson is helping us retaliate." Rachel also interviewed a reporter from the Star-Ledger, who corroborated Samson's having floated the idea of stepping down.

My advice to Mr. Samson: Go for it.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/15/1269978/-Port-Authority-Chief-Samson-Says-He-Might-Resign

Samson, who claimed he wasn't told of bridge plot, threatened Foye in email
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024312456

[riversedge]

7. Whow. Looks like Christie could be in the box on this one! Thanks for the post. I most

the Maddow show.

[herding cats]

11. This just keeps getting deeper and deeper.

I'm going need a spreadsheet to organize the corruption by who, what, where and when.

[avebury]

6. From a defense attorney on UP

This will bring full employment for some of the best white collar criminal attorneys in NJ.

[malaise]

13. That was fall down funny

but 100% accurate

[riqster]

23. See, the Repubs DO have a jobs plan!

Oh, we of little faith.

[Barack_America]

10. But, but Christie is just a completely incompetent leader...

He wasn't aware of ANY of this!

[avebury]

14. The former federal prosecutor was interesting.

"If you are going to after the king, you better kill the king."

I think he was indicating that he does not think that the Feds will go after Christie unless they think that have enough to nail his hide to the wall. They will not touch him unless they think they have a pretty decent slam dunk case.

[Iliyah]

16. "I know nothing"! - CC

[Adrahil]

17. And the walls come tumbling down.....

.... the pattern of bullying and outright extortion has been established. Why the fuck would anyone believe this kind of crap DIDN'T happen? Christie may survive as Governor, but his Presidential ambitions are over.

[Motown_Johnny]

18. Isn't his big Florida Fundraising event today?

Gosh, what bad timing for him. How terrible.



Honestly, it would have been better if the money guys had wasted millions on someone headed for impeachment.


Oh well. Ya can't have everything.

[Octafish]

19. Gov. Soprano

Leave da cannoli.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. I hope Christie realizes he might (should) face federal

charges. Pay to play is a serious offense.

The day of the presser I said if nothing could be linked he would survive. Now, no wonder he is lawyering up.

[AzDar]

21. K & R

[SCVDem]

22. This is just Hoboken

Was there a price or trubute to be paid for the entire Jersey Shore damage?

Keep digging. This has to be the first of many.

Look into who did get the aid and follow the money.

[riqster]

24. One of my fave posters on another board had this sig line:

"spot the lie-follow the money!"

True then, and true today.

[madokie]

25. Krispy Kristie is so fried

he won't make it to the end of his term. I also think he'll be seeing prosecution over all this

[Stuart G]

27. John Dean has stepped up, with a journal..Going to testify. But he is a she.

And she will be credible. And what they did was illegal. And. there will be hearings, and more hearings and a trial.
But, what she said according to the Christie crowd is " false" sure.

....... Who is going to believe that crowd???

To see the bully fall......

I am in awe...

[spanone]

28. soprano politics

[bonniebgood]

29. The thing about all repub officials: They don't Govern, They are constantly

in campaign mode. How is it that CC being in Fl raising money for republicans helping NJ? Who's paying for his
FL trip? Why is he campaigning on the job?

[Zorra]

31. Just another day in the life of your average conservative. nt

[marions ghost]

32. Kornacki did a great job on this

[Gothmog]

33. This is great reporting

I am impressed.