Christie and Jerry Jones - Port Authority officials formally blocked the release of correspondence

[malaise]

-- if it exists -- between themselves and Christie’s office about the transaction with Legends Hospitality...
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http://www.ibtimes.com/port-authority-blocks-release-any-correspondence-chris-christie-about-jerry-jones-1825274
<snip>


After New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently accepted free football tickets and travel from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, two key questions emerged at the center of the controversy: Did the gifts have anything to do with Christie’s appointees to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey giving Jones’ firm a contract to manage operations at the new One World Trade Center in New York City? And how did Christie arrive at his decision to endorse that contract?

Christie officials have publicly denied any connection between the gifts from Jones and Jones getting the contact, but there is no way to verify those denials. That's because on Monday, Port Authority officials formally blocked the release of correspondence -- if it exists -- between themselves and Christie’s office about the transaction with Legends Hospitality, the Jones-owned firm in question.

In response to International Business Times' open records request for all correspondence between the governor’s office and the Port Authority about the deal, the authority declared that the "material responsive to your request, to the extent it exists, is exempt from disclosure.” The letter from Port Authority Freedom of Information Administrator Daniel Duffy asserted that if such correspondence exists, it is part of a “deliberative process” and therefore can be kept secret.

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This ReTHUG scumbag is going to get caught soon and very soon

[malaise]

1. How a string of bad news for Chris Christie could turn dangerous

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/chris-christie-string-bad-news-dangerous-invisible-primary-2016
<snip>
The ominous headlines – three dreadful ones in 48 hours – came fast at the end of the week: From The New York Times, a report that Christie’s “view of his status and pre-eminence within the Republican field is increasingly at odds with the picture outside his inner circle”; then details from the Washington Post of key defections from within Christie’s New Jersey base to Jeb Bush; and finally a Politico survey showing party leaders now downgrading Christie’s prospects of winning the 2016 GOP nod.

Those suspicions exploded when, days after the election, Christie tried to engineer a move to oust the top Republican in the state Senate, Tom Kean Jr., who had devoted serious resources to trying to beat Democrats in Norcross’ backyard. The move failed and Kean survived, but only now is Christie paying a real price for it, with Kean’s father – Tom Kean Sr., the former governor and 9/11 Commission chairman and probably the most respected New Jerseyan on the national political scene – now regularly using his platform to undermine Christie, as he did last week to the Times. Kean Sr.’s criticism has been doubly damaging to Christie because he had long identified the former governor as his political mentor.

But if all of this has served to soften Christie up, the deeper source of his current woes can be found 16 years ago – in a massive, overpowering machine that he helped to create.

It was in 1999 that Christie found himself at the low point of his political career, a man with neither an office nor, it seemed, a future. He’d been an ambitious and talented young pol in the mid-‘90s, elected to county office at 31 years old in 1994. But he was too ambitious, too aggressive, and his brashness offended the locals. A losing campaign for the state legislature was followed by a dead-last finish in his bid for reelection as a Morris County freeholder. He was out of the game, being lapped every day by one rival or another, miles away from political relevance.

And that’s when he identified his redemption vehicle. Christie’s best friend and law partner, a New Jersey Republican top operative named Bill Palatucci, was tied in with the Bush family’s political world. George W. Bush was just setting out to run for president and was preparing to mount a blitz attack the field. The goal: lock down a shocking amount of early money, enough to intimidate rivals out of the race and make Bush the presumptive favorite for the nomination.

[djean111]

4. This seems to echo something I have noticed just lately -

The goal: lock down a shocking amount of early money, enough to intimidate rivals out of the race and make Bush the presumptive favorite for the nomination.

The more things pretend to change, the more they stay the same.

[Laxman]

2. Mr. Christie Is Currently Fighting....

23 open records requests in court. I suppose this will make number 24. Unfortunately, he's just running out the clock. These requests and appeals for records can take years. Now the U.S. Attorney doesn't need to make an OPRA request. He just needs to send a couple of guys with badges and subpoenas over to 225 Park Avenue South and pick up what he needs. If I were Mr. Fishman I'd have somebody on the next train over to the city. Nothing piques the interest of a good investigator like obstruction and obfuscation. Do you have any good investigators Mr. Fishman?

[malaise]

6. I hope Fishman is fishing

It's time to lock up this scumbag

[Gothmog]

3. Christie is hiding a conflict of interest

[napkinz]

5. ...