No mystery about Bridgegate: Christie lied from start to finish, paving way for Trump

This Reuters photo of Governor Christie ran with a December 2015 report on Donald J. Trump's comments about the Bridgegate scandal. On the presidential campaign trail, Trump accused fellow GOP candidate Christie of being complicit in the 2013 lane closings on the George Washington Bridge.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

There is no "lingering mystery of Bridgegate," as a headline on The Record's Opinion front asserts today.

In the court of public opinion, Governor Christie is guilty of lying about his knowledge of the George Washington Bridge lane closings, and his mouthpiece continues to lie about it.

On Wednesday, when two of Christie's former senior aides were sentenced to prison in the political revenge plot, spokesman Brian Murray took exception to comments from the judge.

Murray described the culture of the Governor's Office as "honest, honorable, bipartisan and effective," Star-Ledger opinion Columnist Tom Moran wrote on Friday.

"The judge in the case, Susan Wigenton, apparently touched a nerve by describing the attitude of his administration as, 'You are either with us or against us.'"

And brace for retaliation, if you were against the administration.

'Exposed as a liar'

Moran notes "Murray's most gutsy claim is that this administration has been honest."

"If you remember one thing from the trial, make it this," Moran wrote:

"Christie was exposed as a liar on his core claim in the case. 

"In his mea culpa press conference on Jan. 9, 2014, he said he was 'blindsided' by his staff and only learned this was an act of political revenge a day earlier, with the release of [his deputy chief of staff's] infamous email, 'Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.'

"Five witnesses testified under oath that they had spoken with him about it weeks or months earlier," Moran went on. "Three of them were his close allies, forced to reveal this by hostile questioning under oath.

"A box of kittens? Not quite. More like a nest of vipers," Moran concluded.

Trump on Christie

Right after the Paris terror attacks in November 2015, Christie announced that all Syrian refugees, even children, should be barred from New Jersey and the nation.

Still, less than a month later, the GOP thug labeled as unconstitutional fellow presidential candidate Donald J. Trump's proposal to bar all Muslim immigrants and visitors from entering the United States.

Trump fired back, accusing Christie of being complicit in the Bridgegate plot, Business Insider reported on Dec. 7, 2015.

"The George Washington Bridge, he knew about it .... Totally knew about it," Trump said at a campaign rally in South Carolina.

"They're closing up the largest bridge in the world [and] they never said, 'Hey, boss, we're closing up the George Washington Bridge tonight.'"

'Reform Agenda'

It's likely Christie lied about why he killed the Hudson River rail tunnels in October 2010, one of his first major acts in office.

He cited huge cost overruns that could put New Jersey on the ropes, but secretly laid plans to use leftover tunnel funds for road and bridge repairs to avoid the politically unpopular gas-tax hike.

Many of his initiatives, such as "Reform Agenda" and "Stronger Than the Storm," were only public relations and accomplished little.

In fact, Christie's record of lies, exaggerations and half-truths laid the groundwork for the Trump administration using falsehoods to smear opponents, denounce the media's "fake news" and lie about everything else.

More changes

With the layoff of award-winning Travel Editor Jill Schensul, her section is changing.

Today, only half of Page 2T in Travel carries photos of readers who take the section on their vacations, as opposed to a full page under Schensul.

And that smiling family on the Real Estate cover lives in Minnesota, not New Jersey.

On the Better Living cover today, The Record inexplicably calls the Hudson Valley's craft-beer breweries "the new Sonoma," an apparent reference to one of the most famous wine-grape growing regions in the United States.

As Christie cozies up to Trump, ex-allies won't be going to prison anytime soon

A 2014 cartoon from the New York Daily News goes to the crux of the Bridgegate scandal: Allies of Governor Christie executed a plan to close access lanes on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge to retaliate against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor, who didn't endorse his November 2013 re-election bid, and in the process violated the civil rights of drivers and others caught in five mornings of gridlock.

Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff, above, and co-defendant Bill Baroni were found guilty by a federal jury last Nov. 4 (photo by Mel Evans of the Associated Press)

HACKENSACK MAYOR

CLASHES WITH ZISA ALLIES

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Despite the big black headline on the front page of The Record along with three news or opinion pieces today, the story of the Bridgegate scandal is far from over.

It definitely isn't "prison time" -- as the main headline claims -- for Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, the former allies of Governor Christie who will appeal their convictions and sentences in the September 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures (1A).

That process can take up to two years, extending their freedom from 24-month and 18-month federal prison terms, respectively.

And David Wildstein, Christie's onetime Port Authority crony and the government's star witness, still faces sentencing on his 2015 guilty plea to conspiracy.

New probe?

Meanwhile, Assemblyman John Wisniewski called President Trump's announcement that Christie will head a new commission on opioid addiction an attempt to distract from Wednesday's sentencings of Baroni and Kelly.

Wisniewski also appealed to the Democratic majority in the state Legislature to re-open the state level investigation into Bridgegate.

Christie was never charged despite testimony from Wildstein, Baroni and Kelly the GOP thug knew about the lane closings as they were happening in September 2013.

"I will not allow myself to be the scapegoat," Kelly, 44, said after she was sentenced in Newark federal court on conspiracy, wire fraud and civil rights violations.

Baroni, 45, the former Port Authority executive who was found guilty on the same charges, said he was "wrong and I am truly sorry," but noted "a number of people outside of this courtroom were involved in Fort Lee that day -- some charged, some not."

Three days in row

Today's coverage is the third day in a row the Baroni and Kelly sentencing hearing appeared on Page 1.

Monday's news story reported federal prosecutors were asking for a 3-year prison term for each, and that both were asking for leniency.

On Tuesday, Columnist Charles Stile basically duplicated Monday's news story, and focused on the "first-time offenders" hoping for leniency.

Today, Stile's Page 1 column claims Christie "launched his latest political rehabilitation Wednesday as the compassionate and caring crusader, vowing to stomp out the opioid drug epidemic [italics added]" (1A).

This despite The Record reporting for months that Christie has vowed to end the epidemic, and just last month signed into law a bill mandating insurance coverage to give addicts immediate access to treatment (6A).

Meanwhile, Columnist Mike Kelly tries to calculate to the penny the "cost" of Bridgegate (10A), reportng incorrectly that the plan "to re-arrange the traffic cones" near the bridge "ended on Wednesday" in U.S. District Court in Newark.

Local news?

Hackensack residents aren't as interested in the Bergen County executive's $522 million spending plan as they are in the growing value of tax-exempt county property in the city (1L).

Unfortunately, Staff Writer Steve Janoski and his predecessors have never explored how that tax-exempt property -- including the newly opened Justice Center on Court Street -- unfairly shifts the property tax burden onto city residents.

Nor has The Record reported on what, if anything, the county has returned to the city to compensate for that growing tax burden. 

Hackensack news

Hackensack Mayor John Labrosse and Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin clashed over a teacher "who appears to have distributed campaign material on school time, which is a potential violation of school policy," Staff Writer Rodrigo Torrejon reports (3L). 

A photo of an angry, finger-pointing Salkin runs with the story on Tuesday's school board meeting.

Salkin has good reason to be angry with Labrosse, who headed a slate of City Council reformers elected in May 2013 over five candidates backed by the Zisa family political dynasty.

After the reformers were elected, they stripped Salkin, a Zisa ally, of his second job -- municipal prosecutor.

Salkin has never forgiven them, and he has appeared regularly at City Council meetings to criticize, scold and berate them.

Now, a new slate backed by the Zisas opposes the May 9 re-election bid of the mayor, three other incumbents and a fifth candidate, all of whom are running as the Labrosse Team for Lower Taxes and Honest Government.

Both Salkin and school board President Jason Nunnermacker are lawyers for the Zisa-backed slate, Hackensack United for Progress.

Samson skips 2-year prison term, defies his Delilahs (The Record and prosecutors)

David Samson, onetime chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, in a photo from his former law firm, Wolff & Samson

--HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Like Governor Christie, who installed him as Port Authority chairman, once high-and-mighty David Samson has escaped a prison sentence in the fallout from the Bridgegate scandal.

Today's front-page coverage of Monday's federal court hearing carries a weak headline, and includes a Charles Stile column dripping with sarcasm, but missing any condemnation of the evil twins, Christie and Samson (1A and 3A).

The headline doesn't tell readers who didn't see the TV news on Monday night that Samson escaped jail time:

EX-PORT CHIEF GETS

BRIBERY SENTENCE

Someone should ask the Gannett headline writer where Samson "got" the sentence -- at Macy's?

To make matters worse, captions under the two large photos of Samson don't identify the man and woman flanking him and appearing to run interference for the convicted felon as they left the courthouse in Newark (1A and 3A).

Samson was a mentor to Christie, who called him a father figure. Christie referred to the former state attorney general as "The General."

Samson's law office served as Christie's transition office after the GOP bully won his first term, and he traveled with Christie when he became chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

The charges

Samson pleaded guilty to bribery -- by abusing his position and pressuring United Airlines to provide a special, money losing flight that would make it easier for him to travel to his vacation home in South Carolina.

The charges stemmed from a federal probe that was an offshoot of the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal.

To rub salt into the wounds of federal prosecutors, U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares ordered Samson to serve part of his probationary sentence confined to "the tony vacation home in South Carolina that served as inspiration for the flight scheme in the first place" (6A).

"I don't think it's enough deterrence, obviously," U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said outside the courthouse.

Prosecutors had asked for a 24-month prison term, noting anything less would be perceived as "a slap on the wrist."

Zisa team

The Local front today carries a superficial story on candidates for the April 25 school board and May 9 nonpartisan municipal elections (1L).

Under Hackensack, Staff Writer Rodrigo Torrejon lists three slates of five candidates vying for four-year terms.

The four City Council incumbents are Mayor John Labrosse, Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino, and Councilmen Leo Battaglia and David Sims.

The fifth member of the slate is Stephanie Von Rudenborg, a member of the Planning Board. 

Torrejon doesn't mention the Hackensack United for Progress slate challenging the incumbents is being backed by former four-term mayor Jack Zisa and former Police Chief Ken Zisa.

See: The Zisas kick off campaign to defeat reformers

The reporter also doesn't mention the third slate, Hackensack Strong, includes Richard Cerbo, son of former Mayor Fred Cerbo, who was elected in 1981, defeating Frank Zisa, father of Jack and Ken Zisa.

In the Hackensack school election, four candidates filed for three seats on the board, and voters will be asked to approve a $104 million budget -- 44% of your property taxes go to support the schools.

Candidates are listed as incumbents Johanna Calle and Robin Coles, and challengers Leila Amirhamzeh and Chimelozonam Patrick Allagoa.

Voter apathy

The Record has never attempted to explain the tremendous voter apathy in Hackensack, where only about 3,500 voters out of 20,000 who are registered cast ballots in the municipal election.

The turnout in school elections is even lower.