A new poll suggests most New Jersey voters believe Gov. Chris Christie should resign if he knew about any political motives in the closures to the George Washington Bridge that allegedly were politically orchestrated by one of Christie's aides.
Top advisers to Christie are accused of closing down access lanes to the nation's busiest bridge as an act of political revenge against the mayor of nearby Fort Lee for not endorsing the Republican governor for re-election.
A newly released Rasmussen Poll found 54 percent of voters in New Jersey believe it's likely Christie was aware of the scheme, and 56 percent said if proof surfaces that the governor approved the act, then he should resign.
Christie publicly apologized Thursday, claiming he knew nothing about any political motives in the closures.
Christie aide is latest to use private emails
Personal emails at the center of the brewing scandal for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie may have remained secret, had the public and press relied solely on the state's open records law.
Emails disclosed this past week show a top Christie aide asking the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to shut down three lanes on the busy George Washington Bridge, resulting in major backups for days last September. Those emails were leaked to reporters last week, even though one newspaper requested them nearly a month ago, only to be told they didn't exist.
The use of private emails adds Christie, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016, to a growing list of administrations that use private email accounts and other digital services to conduct official business. In turn, state and federal officials, regardless of political party, have sidestepped public records laws meant to keep government activities transparent.
The Record of Bergen, N.J., said it filed an open-records request last month asking for emails related to the Port Authority's decision to close the bridge lanes. The request specifically sought emails between David Wildstein, a Christie-appointed Port Authority official, and employees in the governor's office.
The newspaper received a response from Christie's office 10 days later, stating that the office "reviewed its records" but did not find any responsive emails. Weeks later, however, emails similar to what The Record asked for were made public after being obtained under subpoena by state Assembly Democrats.
It's unclear why the governor's office didn't turn over apparently responsive emails from the Yahoo Mail account of Christie's former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly. She used the service to send messages to Wildstein, who ordered the bridge lanes closed. Representatives in Christie's office did not immediately return messages seeking comment Friday.
Public records laws, which can vary widely from state to state, govern how officials' documents and correspondence should be stored and released. But those laws largely have been slow to catch up to the digital age.
The result creates a gray area for how state and federal employees can use electronic services, such as personal email accounts and phone text messages, to conduct their business. It also creates murkiness for how those records should be disclosed to an inquisitive public.
For instance, The Associated Press found last year that some of President Barack Obama's political appointees, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, used secret, unpublished email accounts at work. Officials said the emails are still searchable under the federal Freedom of Information Act, although the AP was unable to confirm that practice.
Christie's Democratic predecessor, Jon Corzine, had fought to keep secret emails he exchanged with his ex-girlfriend, a former union leader. The state's highest court ruled in 2009 he could keep those messages private.
Across the Hudson River, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo responded to a month-old AP request under the state's Freedom of Information Law by saying the governor has never written an email - state or personal - for public business. Instead, he uses an untraceable Blackberry message system.
Cuomo, a Democrat, later called it a way to prevent hacking. His office didn't immediately reply when asked Friday if he still uses that approach.
Across the nation, judges have been left to interpret how nascent technology fits into public records laws, often written before the dawn of the Internet.
In October 2012, the Alaska Supreme Court said state employees can use private emails, but that they must be preserved under records laws. The decision stemmed from the practice of former Gov. Sarah Palin's use of private emails in government. When Palin was the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, journalists fought for and received thousands of personal emails she initially claimed were exempt from disclosure.
During the 2012 presidential campaign, GOP nominee Mitt Romney confirmed news reports that when he stepped down as Massachusetts governor in 2007, he authorized top aides to buy and remove computer hard drives containing key data about his administration. The AP submitted a records request for his emails, but learned Romney and top aides had used private email accounts to conduct state business during his stint as governor.
Massachusetts officials said any Romney administration private emails used for state business belonged in Massachusetts archives. But Romney campaign officials refused to make the material public, citing a state court ruling that said Massachusetts governors retained full access over administration records.
The highest court in Arizona, a state with comparably expansive public records laws, said only private emails that have a "substantial nexus" with government activity can be released to the public. That stemmed from the Arizona Republic newspaper's 2005 request for emails from a county official who later went to prison for felony theft and fraud.
New Jersey law says officials can be disciplined and fined up to $5,000 for violating the open-records act, and that agencies have to reimburse a requestor's attorney fees if the state loses an open-records lawsuit.
Chief official believed NJ lane closings illegal
The September lane closings near the George Washington Bridge that caused huge traffic jams and now appear to have been politically orchestrated by a member of Gov. Chris Christie's administration and key allies violated federal law, a chief official said in an email ordering the lanes reopened.
The Sept. 13 email was among thousands of pages released Friday by a New Jersey legislative committee investigating the scandal, which could haunt Christie's expected run for president in 2016. The documents mostly involve the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that runs the bridge.
The documents show the traffic mess created tension between New York and New Jersey appointees at the Port Authority, with the New York side angrily countermanding the lane closings after repeated questions from the media over the closings went unanswered.
"I believe this hasty and ill-advised decision violates federal law," Patrick Foye, authority executive director, said in the email. An appointee of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Foye called the decision to close the lanes "abusive" and ordered them reopened.
Bill Baroni, a Christie-appointed deputy director for the authority who has since resigned, forwarded a copy of the email to Christie's scheduling secretary.
Later that morning, Baroni emailed Foye: "I am on my way to office to discuss. There can be no public discourse."
Foye responded: "Bill that's precisely the problem: there has been no public discourse on this."
Baroni later authorized a statement for reporters explaining that the closings were part of a traffic study.
Lawmakers are looking into allegations that Christie loyalists engineered the tie-ups to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie for re-election. Christie has denied any involvement in the lane closings, and two batches of documents released on Wednesday and Friday do not implicate him.
Christie moved Thursday to contain the damage from the scandal, firing his deputy chief of staff, cutting ties to one of his chief political advisers and apologizing for the traffic jams. Besides Baroni, Christie appointee David Wildstein resigned last month from the Port Authority as the scandal unfolded.
In recent weeks, questions have been raised about whether the closings were part of a legitimate study. Christie himself said Thursday: "I don't know whether this was a traffic study that then morphed into a political vendetta or a political vendetta that morphed into a traffic study."
The newly released documents show there was, in fact, a traffic study that was done, or at least a preliminary one. Two versions turned up in the documents - one was six pages and the other 16. Both were dated Sept. 12, the day before the lanes reopened.
The documents include study findings that Baroni gave to lawmakers at a hearing last year: When the lanes were closed, the main bridge traffic moved a bit faster, but local traffic had major delays.
Michael Cassidy, a University of California-Berkeley engineering professor who occasionally works with the California Department of Transportation, told The Associated Press that the preliminary study appears to be a legitimate internal report of the sort transportation officials often circulate among themselves.
"It could well be a good-faith effort, if not the finest in the annals. I cannot say this is not a study," he said. "You wouldn't want to publish it in an academic journal."
The documents also contain several emails from Port Authority media relations staff to higher-ups reporting on calls from reporters with questions about the closings. The agency did not respond to those calls.
In the correspondence, Port Authority chairman David Samson, a Christie appointee, suggested that Foye had leaked to a reporter an internal memo ordering an end to the lane closings. Samson called that possibility "very unfortunate for NY/NJ relations."
In an Oct. 9 email exchange under the subject "morning clips," Philippe Danielides, a senior adviser at the Port Authority, asked Wildstein: "Has any thought been given to writing an op-ed or providing a statement about the GWB study? Or is the plan just to hunker down and grit our way through it?"
"Yes and yes," Wildstein replied.
In a Sept. 17 email, Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak appears to send Wildstein a response to be sent to a reporter writing about the lane closings. "Traffic studies or pilots are done all the time," he wrote. "They're temporary, and if they're not done, how can the effectiveness of a new approach be tested?"
The documents also showed confusion from some Port Authority employees as the closings were starting.
One employee asked, "What is driving this?" Another responded that he was wondering the same thing: "It seems like we are punishing all for the sake of a few."
And another employee passed along a complaint from a woman who said that her husband, who had been out of work for more than a year, was 40 minutes late for a job interview because of the tie-ups.
One Port Authority police officer went searching for answers.
"The undersigned inquired if this is a permanent plan or temporary," Capt. Darcy Licorish wrote in an email recounting her meeting with the bridge manager. "The manager could not supply an answer to that or other questions. Inquiry was also made as to the notifications of the township. No answers could be supplied."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.