Rachel Maddow: “The Governor has absolutely and blatantly not told the truth about what was going on in his office.”
So much news in the
Governor Chris Christie Fort Lee New Jersey Traffic Jam and related scandals, it is interesting that Christina Genovese Renna resigned on Friday and news of it is only starting to come out now on Sunday evening. The report of her resignation is buried in this story about Republicans who are supporting Christie as he weathers the storm(s).
Also Sunday, a member of Christie's administration who was subpoenaed by lawmakers investigating the lane closings confirmed she had resigned. Christina Genovese Renna left the governor's office Friday, according to her lawyer. Renna had reported to ousted Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Kelly, who apparently set the lane closings in motion with an email saying "time to cause some traffic problems in Fort Lee."
Top Republicans Say They Stand by NJ Gov. Christie
But I've heard that Christina Genovese Renna name before. Where was it? Oh yes, one of
Rachel Maddow's in depth reports way back in time on January 14. Jump orange mangled traffic cone for the relevant excerpt.
There's something else going on, too though, that does not jibe with how the Governor has explained this scandal and his knowledge of if and his role in it. The day after this picture was taken of Chris Christie and David Wildstein together during the traffic jam on September 11th, the day after that, that was a Thursday, the day … so that was a Wednesday. The day after that was a Thursday which is while the shutdown was still going on. And on Thursday, the day after that photo was taken. Thursday. This email was sent between two people who work in Governor Christie's office; between two of his top staffers. Christina Genovese Renna. She’s the Director of Departmental Relations for the State of New Jersey. I know it’s obscure. A lot of people have job titles like that in New Jersey. It can be confusing. In this case what it means is that she worked in the Governor's office and she reported to Bridget Kelly, who’s the Governor's Deputy Chief of Staff who we now know is the person who ordered Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee, to which David Wildstein responded, Got it. So during the shutdown, while it was still happening before the Executive Director of the Authority intervened and forced them to stop doing what they were doing, Fort Lee was into its fourth day of gridlock because of this man-made shutdown. And on that fourth day, on Thursday, Christina Renna wrote to Bridget Kelly this email about the Fort Lee traffic disaster and the mayor of Fort Lee.
Dear Bridget, this afternoon Evan received a call from Mayor Sokolich. The Mayor’s extremely upset about the reduction of toll lanes from 3 to 1. Not only is it causing horrendous traffic backup in town, but first responders are having a terrible time maneuvering the traffic because the backup is so severe. The Mayor told Evan he has no idea why Port Authority decided to do this, but there is a feeling in town that it is government retribution for something. He simply can't understand why that would be the case however, because he has always been so supportive of the Governor. Evan told the fine Mayor, he was unaware the toll lanes were closed, but would see what he could find out.
This is an email during the bridge shutdown. It's to Bridget Kelly who ordered the bridge shutdown. It is from Christina Renna, who worked in the Governor's office. The Evan who is referenced in the email, we think is probably Evan J. Ridley, who also works in the Governor's office. Nobody seems to know what his exact job title is other than Aide to the Governor. Public payroll information shows that he works in the Governor's office as an Aide and gets paid $52,000 a year. Other than that, all we know is that he works in the Governor's office. All of them do. And that means that during the shut down, three people who work in the Governor’s office are emailing about the ongoing bridge lane shutdown and the disaster that it's causing and the allegation that it's politically motivated. There’s no discussion whatsoever about there being some traffic study which the Governor says was the prevailing belief about what was happening with that bridge. And this was contemporaneous to the problem. This wasn’t long after the fact when there’s some newspaper article about it in retrospect that alerted everybody that in fact there had been some problem that’s now resolved. This was during the event. And that means that the Governor has absolutely and blatantly not told the truth about what was going on in his office.
Video of Chris Christie at Thursday 9 Jan 2014 Press Conference:
Question: What about the cover-up piece of this?
Chris Christie: Yeah, well that's your characterization, not mine. But there is nobody on my staff who had any knowledge of this issue until after the issue was already done.
That is not true.