TRENTON — An internal investigation commissioned by the governor's office found no evidence Gov. Chris Christie knew about the controversial plan to shut down several toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge beforehand, according to a report released this morning.

At the same time, it concluded that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer's allegations that the Christie administration withheld Hurricane Sandy aid in an effort to help a private developer were unsubstantiated, "demonstrably false," and "unbelievable."

But while clearing Christie and his senior staff, the report urged the appointment of a chief ethics officer within the governor’s office. And it called for a restructuring of the Port Authority.

The report was written by former federal prosecutor Randy Mastro, a lawyer with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, which was hired by the governor’s office at a reported cost of $1 million to conduct an investigation into the scandals that have engulfed Christie’s office.

Some Democratic state lawmakers have already denounced the report and internal investigation, noting that its findings were leaked before the firm's investigation was done, and that at least three key figures who might have had intimate knowledge of the bridge closings were not interviewed. They said any report ordered up by the governor himself would have no credibility.

Mastro, who acknowledged he was unable to interview many of the key players now targeted in an ongoing legislative inquiry and a separate criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's office, put the blame on the bridge lane closures on David Wildstein, a Christie political appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Bridget Kelly, a deputy chief of staff in the governor's office.

But hedging his conclusions, he noted that “the evidence exposing this operation was not to be found in government files; rather, it was hidden in the personal email accounts and personal texts of those participating in order to conceal their act. As other investigations progress, they may uncover, through their subpoena powers, more about the questions that remain unanswered, including what really motivated this plan.”

Mastro, in a press briefing following the release of the report, said the investigation was a search for the truth.

"We believe we have gotten to the truth. We believe we have gotten it right," he said. "What we found was Gov. Christie had no involvement in the decision to close these lanes, and no prior knowledge of it."

Following the release of the report, state Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) and state Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), who head the legislature's Select Committee on Investigation, gave the Mastro inquiry little credence.

“Lawyers hired by and paid by the Christie administration itself to investigate the governor’s office who then say the governor and most of his office did nothing wrong will not be the final word on this matter," they said in a statement. "The people of New Jersey need a full accounting of what happened. This review has deficiencies that raise questions about a lack of objectivity and thoroughness."

The scandal erupted in September when several lanes dedicated to Fort Lee local traffic at the George Washington Bridge were closed without warning, causing backups throughout Fort Lee, while delaying emergency vehicles, school buses and commuters. Port Authority officials at first attributed the shutdown to a traffic study, that investigators later concluded was concocted as a coverup.

Speculation began growing that the real reason was to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich.

Mastro said Wildstein and Kelly “knowingly participated in the plan” to realign toll lanes onto the bridge, “at least in part, for some ulterior motive to target Mayor Sokolich.”

He said the investigation also found that Bill Stepien, then the governor’s campaign manager, and Bill Baroni, then the deputy executive director of the Port Authority, knew of the lane closure idea in advance, but “we found no evidence that they knew of the ulterior motive here, besides the claimed purpose of conducting a traffic study.”

What motivated the action is not yet clear, Mastro said.

“The common speculation that this was an act of political retaliation because Mayor Sokolich failed to endorse the Governor for re-election is not established by the evidence that we have seen,” he stated. “As to whether anyone else may have knowingly participated in this plan to target Mayor Sokolich, our investigation has not found any evidence of anyone else’s involvement.”

Sokolich, a Democrat, had been widely expected by the Christie campaign to endorse the Republican governor, but then declined to do so.

Mastro said Wildstein had been pushing the elimination of the local toll lanes, which are dedicated to Fort Lee traffic, for years.

“It was Wildstein’s ‘idea,’ like so many other ‘crazy’ ones he’d had before that never got off the ground,” said Mastro in the 300-page report’s executive summary.

Among his political friends, Wildstein first approached Stepien about this idea to realign the Fort Lee toll lanes, the report said. Stepien, who by then was no longer a state employee, sidestepped the question, telling Wildstein he would have to go to “Trenton.” Wildstein then began communicating with Kelly about the subject using their personal email accounts.

On August 13, 2013, Kelly reconfirmed that Sokolich would not be endorsing the governor for re- election. She then sent Wildstein a email that to many has become the smoking gun in the case: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

Wildstein responded: “Got it.”

Mastro said he found no evidence up until that of any hostility toward Sokolich.

“But when Kelly learned that one of her staffers, Evan Ridley, apparently met with Mayor Sokolich a few days later on August 16, 2013, she lashed out about it in a series of emails, saying “I am on fire,” “I am irate,” “[W]hy did he think it was ok to meet with Sokolich?,” and “He should not have met with Fort Lee without approval. I am really upset with him.”

After a huge public outcry in the immediate wake of the lane closures, Mastro said Wildstein and Kelly attempted to cover up their role as the controversy grew.

Mastro, though, said they found no evidence of any other member of the governor’s staff, besides Bridget Kelly, being involved in the decision to realign the George Washington Bridge toll lanes at Fort Lee.

“And we have not found any evidence of any other member of the governor’s staff, besides Bridget Kelly, doing anything to cover up what happened here after the fact,” he said. “Whatever motivated Wildstein and Kelly to act as they did, it was not at the behest of Governor Christie, who knew nothing about it.

He did not interview Kelly, Wildstein or Stepien, who refused to talk to Mastro. He also did not interview David Samson, the chairman of the Port Authority whose emails regarding the lane closures have surfaced in the legislative inquiry. Samson's law firm was also tied to the development deal in Hoboken that Mastro investigated.

The report cleared the governor of pushing any political agenda in Hoboken, where Mayor Dawn Zimmer charged that top administration officials threatened to choke her city's disaster-relief funding after Hurricane Sandy unless she approved a development project Christie wanted on the waterfront.

Armed with entries from her personal journal, Zimmer—once a supporter of the embattled governor—went on national television and accused Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Richard Constable, a member of Christie's cabinet, of attempting to strong-arm her last year in moving forward with a the project.

The Mastro report said “whatever subjective perceptions she may have do not match objective reality, as reflected in the hard evidence uncovered during our investigation.

“Her allegations are contradicted by contemporaneous documents, other witnesses’ accounts, and her own prior statements,” the report said. “Our investigation found that Mayor Zimmer’s allegations are, in material respects, demonstrably false. They are contradicted by contemporaneous documents, other witnesses’ accounts, and her own prior statements. Mayor Zimmer herself has called the sequence of events that she has alleged “unbelievable.” Based on our investigation, we would have to agree.”

In a statement, Zimmer said the conclusions of the Mastro report were predictable.

“Randy Mastro could have written his report the day he was hired and saved the taxpayers the million dollars in fees he billed in generating this one-sided whitewash of serious misconduct by the Christie Administration," she said. “This report only reinforces the soundness of the decision I made not to cooperate with Mr. Mastro’s so-called investigation. To do so would only have leant credibility to an effort that, unfortunately for the taxpayers of New Jersey, has no credibility or legitimacy whatsoever.”

Mastro, in his conclusions, said the George Washington Bridge toll lane realignment and the ensuing gridlock resulting from it, “while the actions of a few, are simply unacceptable. Whether in their implementation, their motivation, or both, they amounted to a breach of public trust that never should have happened. And never should happen again.”

Among his recommendations, he called for restricting the use of personal email accounts for conducting state business. “The individuals responsible for these acts used their personal email accounts to communicate about this plan. That practice has to end. Absent extraordinary circumstances, public employees working in trusted positions should use their official state email accounts when conducting state business.”

He also called for the elimination of the office that Bridget Kelly ran as the governor’s deputy chief of staff, and Bill Stepien ran before her.

“Its primary function is constituent service and intergovernmental affairs, liaising and responding to elected officials and others as problem solvers and troubleshooters for constituents and locals officials alike. It appeared to have functioned very effectively during the first three years of the governor’s first term, both in terms of responsiveness and non-partisanship,” he said. “But then, during the governor’s re-election year, under Kelly’s stewardship, there was aberrational behavior at Kelly’s direction.”

He recommended disbanding the office and reorganizing its functions within a new and expanded Governor’s Office of Constituent and Legislative Services

He called for the appointment of an ombudsman within The governor’s office to serve as a sounding board and resource readily available for receiving complaints.

And he urged the appointment of a chief ethics officer.

Mastro also recommended a restructuring of the Port Authority through a bi-state commission to recommend reforms and “ensure its independence and professionalism.”

He said the George Washington Bridge incident demonstrated, divisions between the Port Authority’s New Jersey and New York counterparts.

Finally, he said the governor should consider taking steps to require all state and local elected officials, to timely report to law enforcement authorities, or the inspectors general or chief ethics officers responsible for such oversight, any conduct that they believe may constitute crimes being committed on their watch,

“This would ensure timely reporting and investigation of any such allegations. And it would address the questions that necessarily arise about the motivations and veracity behind allegations such as Mayor Zimmer’s that are only first publicly made long after the fact.”

Bridgegate report released 14 Gallery: Bridgegate report released

Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher LLP

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