It'd be a stretch to say New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had put his Bridgegate-related troubles behind him, but until this weekend, it was not unreasonable for one to think that Christie could at least take comfort in the fact that the multiple investigations being undertaken by different authorities were out in the open and thus not liable to be sources of surprise. Yet a new report this weekend shows that even this silver lining is less shiny than it seemed, because a whole new team is now reportedly working hard to see if Christie's handling of the infamously corrupt Port Authority fell below even that sketchy agency's standards.
Here's the latest you need to know about Chris Christie:
- Multiple reports this weekend claimed that the district attorney for Manhattan has issued subpoenas in connection with investigating how the Port Authority has been run under Christie's watch. The subpoenas are allegedly focused on the Authority's handling of the World Trade Center rebuilding as well as construction related to the PATH train in NYC. The Authority, recall, is where former Christie aide David Wildstein was inserted by the governor in a move many interpreted as Christie's attempt to have "eyes and ears" on the inside of the opaque bureaucracy.
- In other Bridgegate news, Christie won an extension of his time to respond to two lawsuits relating to the Bridgegate incident, one from a group of people who said their being stuck on the George Washington Bridge caused them to be late for work, and another from a team of taxi and limo companies. The New York Daily News reports that these lawsuits complain in part of "deprivation of constitutional rights to due process and freedom of movement, official misconduct, conspiracy and racketeering." These probably won't be the only Bridgegate-related lawsuits coming Christie's way — especially if he's ultimately shown to have been involved in the scandal all along.
- Even better news for Christie, however, comes from this BuzzFeed interview with GOP donor, Home Depot co-founder and all-around billionaire Ken Langone. In the interview, the octogenarian Republican moneyman tells BuzzFeed that, although he thinks Jeb Bush would be a great president, he's standing by Christie, whom he considers to have less "baggage" and a greater capacity to connect with the American electorate, as his choice for 2016. One assumes Langone has heard of this whole Bridgegate thing, but then again we suppose "baggage" is in the eye of the beholder.
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