Chris Christie is in South Carolina this week, his first trip there in the 2016 cycle. On Tuesday he spent seventy minutes answering questions from GOP activists, road testing pro-gun, anti-Common Core, and anti-teachers’ union messages as he lays groundwork to enter an ever-widening pool of contenders for the GOP nomination.
[Side note: I had forgot that he hadn't yet withdrawn from the race. Anyone else??]
Last week, Bridget Anne Kelly’s attorney, Michael Critchley, filed a request with the presiding judge 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.
That report inculpated Kelly, which is why her lawyer is interested in having a look at how it was made. He asked to see "the work product" - interview transcripts, notes, and so forth - to see what people actually said and whether they square with the final report. Only one problem: Gibson Dunn told Critchley those notes and other work product don't exist.
This could be a big deal. 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.” Gibson Dunn is therefore under a contractual obligation to keep any documents and notes relating to these interviews since they constitute “work product.”
Moreover, they were legally obligated to keep that material since everyone in the country knew in 2015 that Bridgegate was the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. Gibson Dunn is a firm packed with former federal prosecutors. They know these rules.
And note also that if anything was to be destroyed by the firm – even if it was after the ordinary seven-year-long retention period – Mastro’s team was obligated to notify their client – the Christie Administration.
There is another reason why this is potentially a big deal, and this one is easier to understand. Gibson Dunn's bills to the NJ taxpayer for this work are enormous, and now they are going to be in the spotlight. $7.75 million and counting. Oh, and this:
One of the attorneys who worked on the Mastro Report, Debra Yang, was, like Christie, a fellow George W. Bush-appointed U.S. Attorney. She’d vacationed with the Christies and was called a “good and dear friend” by the governor in 2011. She also billed 118 hours in the first month Gibson Dunn was brought aboard to defend her friend.okay we all know about the unparalleled audacity of republican and right wing arrogance but shouldn't the party drop this guy i mean the other shoe is going to fall eventually and let's say he makes it to the primary and on to the nomination than that big brogan of an elephant shoe thunderously hits the ground and indictments are now reasons to be held over for trial. what do they do then?? even if he like murderous cops get a free pass the cloud will always be over his head and you think what they are doing now is no way to govern well neither is the leader that more than half the country thinks is guilty any way to govern.
what about Wildstein who says he has proof Christie knew about the lane closings too much for a guy wanting to be president who claims he didn't know what was going on in his own office. how could we trust he would know anything pertaining to the job. like G W Bush said "fool me once so you can't get fooled again"
