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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAnother Friday News Dump From Christie....
and this one smells really bad. It also may have claimed the career of another person who couldn't figure out that getting too close to our favorite governor is hazardous to your reputation. This is an example of how much can happen in just one week. On Monday, an interesting article was written by WNYC's Matt Katz about Jamie Fox, the long time democratic fixture in NJ politics who was appointed Transportation Commissioner by Chris Christie about 1 year ago. Before that, he was a happy and prosperous lobbyist promoting the interests of United Airlines. See item # 260 over at the Christie Crime Digest which is remarkably still growing. I had heard when he was appointed that it was to placate the democrats and smooth the way for Christie's presidential campaign. Apparently that was true. Seems Mr. Fox tried to influence his democratic friends in the legislature to deep six the Bridgegate probe before it got too far.
Jamie Fox is a Democrat with Republican friends, a cabinet member in the Christie Administration who worked for three out of the last four Democratic governors, an operative who has survived in New Jersey politics through relationships, smarts and a reputation for toughness.
Now, he is linked to the two most notorious scandals to hit Gov. Chris Christie: Bridgegate and the Chairman's Flight.
Fox tried to influence Democrats in the Legislature to back off from its investigation of the mysterious lane closures at the George Washington Bridge in the fall of 2013, according to three sources from the Legislature and Port Authority close to the investigation. And he expressed anger that the investigation persisted even after Port Authority deputy executive director, Bill Baroni, testified to the Assembly Transportation Committee that the lane closures were part of a traffic study. Baroni's testimony was discredited shortly afterward when the "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" email was released.
It was unclear on whose behalf Fox did this lobbying, although he dined regularly with his friend, David Samson, the former Port Authority chairman and Christie confidante who is now ensnared in the so-called Chairman's Flight scandal. Federal investigators are looking into whether Samson asked United Airlines to establish a flight route from the Port Authority-owned Newark Liberty Airport to Columbia, S.C., where Samson has a weekend home, in a deal that would have lowered United's costs.
As if that news wasn't bad enough, the next day, Mr. Fox was accused of ethics violations for taking part in meetings regarding his former friends at United Air Lines:
New Jersey transportation chief James P. Fox violated ethics laws, a former director of the states ethics commission said Tuesday, by sitting in on a closed-door meeting in November that included discussions about United Airlines, a company that Fox represented as a lobbyist a month earlier.
Foxs department, in a strongly worded rebuttal, said no violation took place.
Commissioner Fox did not take part in any conversation about United, there has never been a vote on any United matter since he has been commissioner, and there was no ethical violation, Stephen Schapiro, a spokesman for the states Transportation Department, said in a lengthy statement released Tuesday evening.
But two former commissioners of the State Ethics Commission, in separate interviews Tuesday, said a fact pattern delineated in news reports on Monday presented strong evidence to the contrary. State laws prohibit government employees from involving themselves in a matter that relates to a former business associate in the private sector for at least one year. In such cases, they said, the official is required to recuse himself from discussions, even if no decision is made.
and then on Friday the proverbial "other shoe" dropped-quite a week for the formerly fabulous Mr. Fox:
He expressed frustration over the state's failure to fund the bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund.
But New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox's former role as a lobbyist for United Airlines also had come under increasing scrutiny in recent months, amid a sweeping federal corruption investigation into the airline's dealings with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
On Friday the veteran Democratic political strategist asked by Republican Gov. Chris Christie to return to the cabinet post he once held under Gov. James E. McGreevey said he would step down by the end of the month.
"I returned to government understanding it would entail a personal sacrifice and that it would not be a lengthy stay," Fox said in a statement.
Fox had been in the job for only a year, but had been stymied over efforts to gain support for an increase in the gas tax to help fund the state's roads and bridges across the state.
More recently, though, his name had surfaced in the continuing federal probe of former Port Authority chairman David Samson.
So the stench of Chris Christie has soiled yet another person who worked to press the agenda of promoting the personal ambition of the bloviating blimp. David Samson, the chairman of United Air Lines, now Mr. Fox and who knows how many others to come drowning in the cesspool of Christie's corruption-with the people of NJ paying the bills all the way.
http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/15/09/28/united-lobbyist-now-christie-cabinet-member-pressed-for-halt-to-bridgegate-investigation#
http://www.northjersey.com/news/ethics-issue-arises-over-united-airlines-subsidy-n-j-dot-chief-denies-breaking-rule-1.1421343
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/10/nj_transportation_commissioner_leaves_amid_federal.html#incart_river_home
Human101948
(3,457 posts)At the same time United executives were negotiating with the Port Authority, they also made unprecedented contributions to Christie's re-election campaign. The airline agreed to start flying to Atlantic City airport, a key Christie political priority.
http://www.wnyc.org/story/christie-transportation-head-resigns/
Please, please, Mr. Attorney General brighten my Christmas with the gift of a Christie indictment!
Laxman
(2,419 posts)and isn't it interesting that people from Illinois would be donating to Mr. Christie's gubernatorial campaign! Why there's no connection between the two is there? "Hey Smisek-make sure the folks at United make the checks out to 'Christie for Governor'!"
malaise
(269,157 posts)Lock up all the bums
K & R
Beach Rat
(273 posts)Port Authority: Former Christie Appointee Deleted Key Records: http://www.wnyc.org/story/port-authority-former-christie-appointee-deleted-key-records/
Bill Baroni did it.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey now says former Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, once Gov. Chris Christies top staffer at the bi-state agency, hid from public view key records of meetings with United Airlines and its lobbyist, current Christie transportation commissioner Jamie Fox. Baroni was indicted last May for his role in the Bridgegate conspiracy.
The records, possible key details in a bribery investigation by the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, were deleted long before prosecutors began subpoenaing records concerning United Airlines.
If proven, current and former prosecutors say, hiding the meetings could bolster a federal case. If you have concealment and cover-up it could be very valuable evidence to prove intent, said one prosecutor who didn't want his name used because he's not authorized to speak on the case.
Baronis attorney, Mike Baldassare, called the Port Authoritys statement profoundly wrong.
At issue is whether United Airlines, in exchange for tens of millions of dollars in annual flight fee reductions, set up a special direct flight route from Newark Airport to Columbia, S.C. near the weekend home of David Samson, the former Port Authority chair and a close Christie confidante.
Records of four key meetings were removed from Bill Baronis calendar, which was made public in April, 2014, after a freedom of information request by the New York Times. WNYC only learned of the meetings because a subsequent document request, filed 14 months later under a new regime at the bi-state agency, turned up the documents.
Yet somehow Christie continues to campaign for president! Go figure.
Laxman
(2,419 posts)Last edited Sat Oct 3, 2015, 11:13 AM - Edit history (1)
warming up his singing voice! Wow. He's going down and I would like to think not alone. This was quite a week for Mr. Christie back home in NJ. Too bad he doesn't spend much time here-except for trying to garner some press from a non-emergency emergency.
Thank you for the link-it has been appropriated for Christie Crime Digest item # 270
Gothmog
(145,554 posts)Laxman
(2,419 posts)as they are the elements of the existing scandals starting to come together. It will only take one or two of these players deciding they won't take one for Christie to bring it all home. They're all inter-related too, which is really interesting. I just read about Baroni deleting records relating to Fox this morning when someone posted it above here. This whole tangled web of the bridge and Samson and United and campaign donations and-I still believe-Sandy money will all be unraveled by somebody who doesn't want to go to jail to protect Christie. I think the more the U.S. Attorney (and reporters) dig, the closer we are to that occurring.
Laxman
(2,419 posts)from Brian Murphy at TPM
Late this afternoon on the eve of a storm that is set to bring high tides and heavy winds to the New Jersey coastline, Gov. Chris Christie announced the sudden dismissal of the head of his transportation cabinet agency.
Jamie Fox, a veteran Democratic powerbroker, was chosen by Christie to lead the states Department of Transportation in late 2014. It was a surprising appointment at the time, and interpreted as a way for Christie to deploy Foxs considerable political capital in the state legislature, which is led by the same Democrats who sanctioned the Bridgegate investigation.
What largely escaped notice at the time, however, was that Fox had been a top lobbyist in the state for United Airlines, the carrier now being probed in connection with a federal investigation of former Port Authority chairman David Samson, one of Gov. Christies top consiglieres.
Earlier this year it was reported that at a September 2011 dinner with United Airlines executives and Port Authority officials, Samson had asked now-former United CEO Jeffrey Smisek to create a route that would allow Samson to fly from Newark Liberty Airport to an airport in Columbia, South Carolina near Samsons vacation home.
The airline agreed to this request, and continued to run the half-empty flight until three days after Samsons resignation from the Port Authority in early 2013.
Jamie Fox, himself a former deputy executive director of the Port Authority, was at that dinner in his capacity as Uniteds lobbyist. When the airline initially stalled in creating the flight route, Samson removed an item important to the airline from the Port Authority board of commissioners meeting agenda. He communicated that move to the airline via Jamie Fox. Shortly thereafter, the airline began planning the flights to South Carolina a route Samson and others reportedly called the chairmans flight.
read the rest here: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/on-eve-of-mega-storm-christie-cans-transport-chief-tied-over-bridgegate-scandal