New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) looked very happy celebrating the Dallas Cowboy’s playoff victory on Sunday, cheering his adopted team on from the Cowboys’ owner’s luxury box. Unfortunately, things have gone downhill since then.
The Wall Street Journal ran this report last night:
Federal prosecutors in New Jersey have subpoenaed Gov. Chris Christie’s re-election campaign for documents relating to government meetings that were allegedly canceled with Jersey City’s mayor after he declined to endorse the governor, according to people familiar with the matter.The subpoenas, sent by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, are another sign that the yearlong probe into former allies of Mr. Christie has broadened beyond matters directly related to the George Washington Bridge lane closures.
It was followed this afternoon by this Bloomberg News report (thanks to my colleague Julia Nutter for the heads-up).
A federal grand jury subpoenaed the New Jersey legislative committee investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closings, seeking records connected to former Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, two people with knowledge of the request said.Committee members were notified today of the subpoena, which also seeks recordings of testimony Baroni gave in November 2013 to the Assembly transportation committee about the bridge traffic jam in September of that year, the people said…. The subpoena indicates the investigation by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman is ongoing.
As the New Jersey Republican prepares to launch his presidential campaign, Christie and his team routinely tell GOP insiders that all of that scandal unpleasantness is behind them. Evidently, that’s not the case at all.
Meanwhile, Christie’s trip to the Dallas area over the weekend has itself become a problem.
NJ.com reported today there are “plenty of unanswered questions” surrounding the governor and his out-of-state travel (thanks to my colleague Tricia McKinney for the tip). For example, while Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he paid for Christie to attend the game last week, the governor’s office “won’t say who paid for Christie’s travel to Maryland for the prior week’s game.”
The largest unanswered question of Christie’s travels is the cost to New Jersey taxpayers. Christie spent all or part of 137 days out of state last year, with the bulk of the travel dedicated to his duties as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.State Police troopers are responsible for the governor’s safety at all times and follow him when he’s in the state or travels outside of it. But the additional costs of travel, lodging and meals for troopers following the governor on each trip are matters of state secret.
Incidentally, it was exactly one year ago today that we first learned about the “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” email from one of the governor’s top aides.
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."