TRENTON, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie on Monday said his office is cooperating with a subpoena from federal authorities investigating whether any laws were broken when lanes near a New Jersey bridge were apparently closed for political retribution.
TRENTON, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie on Monday said his office is cooperating with a subpoena from federal authorities investigating whether any laws were broken when lanes near a New Jersey bridge were apparently closed for political retribution.
The Republican governor also said in a radio interview as he took questions for the first time in more than three weeks that he might have heard about the traffic tie-ups in Fort Lee when they were going on last September, but it didn’t register with him as a major issue if he did.
He said a news report several days after the lanes were reopened got his attention and he asked staffers to look into it. The report indicated the chief of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey did not authorize the closings.
“Nobody has said I knew about this before it happened, and I think that’s the most important question,” Christie said in the appearance on his “Ask the Governor” radio show on Townsquare Media Monday night.
It was the first time Christie took questions since a nearly two-hour news conference Jan. 9, the day after emails were made public showing at least one of his top aides had a role in a traffic-blocking scheme near the George Washington Bridge. Since then, he has made public appearances but not opened himself to questions, except to schoolchildren in Camden.
Meanwhile, Christie’s campaign sought to exceed New Jersey’s election spending cap to pay for lawyers dealing with subpoenas stemming from a political payback scandal.