Hoboken Mayor Snubs ‘Invitation’ From Christie Admin Lawyers
This looks like both a prudent legal and political move, as Mayor Dawn Zimmer is already providing documents and testimony to federal investigators looking into allegations of misuse of Hurricane Sandy funds by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s office.
A team of attorneys retained to represent Governor Christie’s office in the aftermath of the George Washington Bridge scandal is seeking documents and a private interview with the Hoboken mayor, whose explosive allegations have further fueled the governor’s woes.
In January, Mayor Dawn Zimmer of Hoboken alleged that members of Christie’s administration had threatened to withhold Superstorm Sandy aid if she did not fast-track a particular real estate development project.
In letters obtained by The Record, lawyer Randy Mastro asked that Zimmer and four other Hoboken officials provide his legal team with documents already handed over to federal investigators. Authorities are looking into Zimmer’s claims that she was pressed to support a development project represented by the law firm of David Samson, the chairman of the Port Authority and a Christie confidant.
The governor’s office, Mastro wrote, takes Zimmer’s allegations “very seriously.”
But Zimmer, who has already met with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and gave authorities a journal in which she recounted the alleged threat delivered by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, declined the invitation.
“We question whether it is appropriate for the Governor’s Office, in essence, to be investigating itself, particularly when an investigation of the same subject matter is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Zimmer’s attorney wrote in a reply letter sent to Mastro on Thursday. The Christie administration and Guadagno have denied Zimmer’s claims.
