NJ.com's, Michael Chritchley, Bridget Kelly's lawyer responds to internal Christie report, saying “(t)he report’s venomous, gratuitous, and inappropriate sexist remarks concerning Ms. Kelly have no place in what is alleged to be a professional and independent report.”

Chritchley suggested Christie' lawyer Randy Mastro was trying to take "a preemptive strike” against Kelly that sought to “impugn” her credibility.



“Ms. Kelly’s evidence could be critical to verifying either of the two competing versions of events,” he said, adding, “A preemptive strike to isolate Ms. Kelly and impugn her credibility is not surprising,” In the last lines of his statement, Critchley appeared to make an overture to the U.S. Attorney's Office, indicating — as he has done before — that if Kelly were to be granted immunity from prosecution, she would give information to investigating authorities. To date, Kelly has invoked her Fifth Amendment constitutional rights, not providing documents to state legislative investigators. Based on what is publicly known, it also appears she has not spoken with federal investigators. “The only credible investigation into the lane closings is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office,” Critchley said. “If Ms. Kelly were provided with the appropriate procedural safeguards, she will be fully cooperative and provide truthful and complete answers to any questions asked of her by the appropriate law enforcement authorities.”



Chritchley proffer suggests Kelly's knowledge resolves the conflict over whether Wildstein or Christie is lying or truthful.

Wow. The worm turns.

Drip, drip, drip. Or should we say now, gush, gush, gush.

I suspect David Samson is the key mastermind of this episode. He met with Christie the week before the closings, and the planning for this seems to go back well before that. I suspect Bridget Kelly and David Wildstein may not have had direct connections with either one of them due to the chain of command issues, and Christie's hyper-vigilence about living evidence.

Kelly may have been induced into the conspiracy by Stepien, who was following orders from Boroni, who was directed by Samson, all of whom assumed Samson was acting with Godfather Christie's blessing, Remember he prosecuted over 150 Democrats for this kind of thing and grew up watching the Godfather, a popular movie in New Jersey, which is alleged by popular local legends to have once had cultural roots influenced by organized crime. What I'm saying is all of these people would not though is unusual for operating order for "black operations," to have preserved plausible deniability for the Godfather and to have come down to the lieutenants from the consigliari (Samson, O'Doud), and from the lieutenants (Boroni, and possible Stepien) to the street soldiers, (Kelly, and Wildstein.)

He was the big boss at the port authority, and the boss of Boroni. We can imagine Wildstein, Kelly and Stepien plotting out the details from this chain of command all under the presumption that Samson and Christie had set the plan in motion.

It may even be remotely possible that Samson went rogue on Christie on the planning on this particular GWB incidents, but Christie would have still been responsible for setting up this whole system, and was certainly aware of it well before he claims, and in on the cover-up.

I've taught in senior executive courses for several decades and have had executives from about a third of the Fortune 100 either in my classes or directly as clients. I founded and was a CEO of an INC 500 company before a combination of unfortunate health events, vindictive exwife, bad luke, and poor decision, cause me to loose every thing but the love of my son. But, I know quite a lot about the inside of executive command and control situations. My first client who helped me start my business was the global strategy director of what was then the largest and most profitable and successful company in the world.

I could be wrong, but my experience is that it seems nearly impossible for me to imagine something this dramatic and consequential, involving so many people at every level surrounding Governor Christie could have gone on for four months without anyone telling him. Even the Mastro report admits that after Drewniak had dinner with Wildstein and learned Wildstein claimed he told Christie about his involvement in the GWB event while it was happening Drewniak would have told one of the two chiefs of staffs, not Christie, probably O'Doud.

Are we to believe Chris Christie's top chief of staff would not tell Christie something of this magnitude and import?

Inconceivable. A Governor's Chief of Staff's only job and loyalty is to protect and exercise the will of his boss. To have two of them, Samson, and all of these others all knowing this for months strains credulity.

Some have seen how energetic Governor Christie looks and interpret the dramatic sudden burst of interviews, press conferences, announcements, and David Samson's resignation as evidence that Christie is ready to put this behind him.

I see the opposite. Yesterday, morning when we saw all of these events coming up I remarks somewhere here, "uh, oh, Christie knows something bad is about to come out and he is trying to throw up a lot of smoke and dust to alter the headlines."

And, he has been successful to some extent. Do you realize that had he not done all of this the headlines would have been "David Wildstein Told Christie of Land Closing Sept 11" and we'd all be demanding his resignation.

Instead, all day yesterday, CNN's headline was "Christie Exonerated by report... with footnote." Even much of the print media. How sad to see what has become of them all.

Christie has fooled no one here. We can be proud that this case proves that we have taken up the proud tradition of independent investigative journalism and just good old American common sense thinking.

Also, the bad news is not over for Christie. U.S. Attorney Fishman has been watching all of this and has much more information than we have. I suspect Roger Mastro realizes something we don't about what is about to happen there and also know how eager Bridget Kelly, Wildstein, and perhaps also David Samson, Boron, and Stepien are to make deals.

For example, Samson is 74, and I've pointed out he could run out the clock. the U.S. Attorney took 4 years from the start of the investigation to indict VA Governor McDonnnel and his wife for a much case more simple. However, he did not have such a large army of helpers. Does Samson want to spend his remaining years in prison to save Christie.

We are nearing the time in the cycle comparable to the Nixon Watergate episode that Dunesberry published that famous cartoon, "Guilty, guilty, guilty."

Samson did the right thing. Yes, he needed to resign so we can clean house at the Port Authority and move forward. And, for exactly the same reason, regardless of his level of involvement in the details, due to his admittedly failed leadership, Governor Christie should resign and spare himself, his family, the people of New Jersey and all of us the pain and embarrassment of this incident becoming undignified. (snark alert!). Let all of us clean house, move forward, and do the work we should be doing for the people of New Jersey and America with a clean slate and more functional and competent and accountable leadership.