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Originally Posted by rocknation
Apparently Christie didn't know that the lawyer he hired to head up his "internal review" is also heading his law firm's defense of the (Port Authority) in a lawsuit against its toll hikes. The lawyer has withdrawn from the lawsuit, but his firm has not, so the conflict of interest remains. |
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Originally Posted by Kathleen
(Christie) has no right to spend my money on expensive lawyers so they can write a report saying he's clean...
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Originally Posted by Kathleen
(But) he might have made a fatal mistake...He used taxpayer money to fund that report, and because of that he might actually have to abide by the subpoena. That might expose records that he doesn't want exposed. I can dream, can't I...
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Talking Points Memo: It would seem that, for now, the postponement to mid-November of the Bridgegate trials...works in Christie’s favor...But there is something going on in the pre-trial maneuvering that could turn into a real headache for the governor.
Last week, Bridget Anne Kelly’s attorney...filed a request with the presiding judge (Susan D. Wigenton) to be given the power to subpoena Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher. That’s the law firm Christie hired last January – at public expense – to investigate his administration and produce the so-called “Mastro Report” that exonerated him from any culpability in both Bridgegate and allegations leveled against him by the Mayor of Hoboken relating to Hurricane Sandy relief aid...
Bridget Kelly’s attorney is asking the judge to subpoena are the notes and transcripts that Gibson Dunn’s attorneys used to draft the “Mastro Report,” the report which exonerated the Governor and tossed the now-indicted former associates under the proverbial bus...Mastro and his team interviewed 75 witnesses, the vast majority of whom worked in the Christie Administration...
Kelly’s attorney wants to see who said what in the interviews that were used by Gibson Dunn’s team...(S)everal witnesses questioned by Gibson Dunn reported that a paralegal or stenographer was present in the room “‘feverishly’ typing verbatim or near verbatim notes of everything that was said” during their interviews...Yet, according to Critchley’s filing with the court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has told him that when they asked Gibson Dunn for those interview transcripts, they were told by the firm that none exist....
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But they HAVE to exist...they're required to exist by law!
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According to the manual for outside counsel that’s put together by the N.J. Attorney General’s office, “outside counsel shall” – not may or might, but shall – “retain pleadings, correspondence, discovery materials, deposition transcripts and similar documents and work product for a period of no less than seven years.”
...(S)everal witnesses who’d been interviewed by Gibson Dunn told state lawmakers, under oath, that the Mastro Report mischaracterized what they recalled telling Gibson Dunn...The witnesses could be lying...(or) Gibson Dunn (either) has the notes, or they opted to destroy them at some point...
If interview transcripts exist and repeatedly diverge from the narrative...in the Mastro Report or the interview summaries, it raises the question of what Gibson Dunn has been doing with all that public money and why they were hired by Christie’s team in the first place...
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman's office has sent a letter to the presiding judge...supporting...(the)...motion to subpoena recordings, transcripts, and notes taken during witness interviews with Gibson Dunn attorneys representing the Christie Administration...
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Since the public funded the Mastro Report, I don't see how the judge can say no. It looks like our Kathleen's dreams might actually come true!
P.S. And she'll be happy to know that seeing "a looming public relations disaster," the firm’s hourly rate of $650 an hour was negotiated down to $350 an hour!