An internal probe paid for by the governor of New Jersey has cleared Chris Christie in any involvement in the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal.
“Our investigation found that Governor Christie did not know of the lane realignment beforehand and had no involvement in the decision to realign the lanes,” NBC News quoted the report, saying the governor “made appropriate inquiries and even convened a special meeting of his senior staff on December 13, 2013, demanding to know whether any of them were involved in this decision, only to be lied to by [then-deputy chief of staff Bridget Ann] Kelly.”
Democrats were less than convinced by the report. The Associated Press reported that New Jersey State Senator Loretta Weinberg called it “nothing more than an expensive sham” and that it “raises more questions than answers.” Assemblyman John Wisniewski added: “It’s very hard to tell who’s telling the truth when you don’t hear from all sides.”
The governor justified hiring the lawyers, according to Politico: “The bottom line is, these people have their own professional and personal reputations. They’re not going to whitewash anything for me.”
In an exclusive interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer Christie affirmed the conclusions of the report: “When things were first reported, I said: ‘This can’t possibly be true. Because who would do something like that?’ Sometimes, people do inexplicably stupid things. And so that’s what makes it so hard then to, as the guy in charge, you…none of it made any sense to me. And to some extent still does not.”
Diane Sawyer was re-tweeted by Governor Christie regarding the interview:
My exclusive interview with Gov. Chris Christie is coming up on @ABCWorldNews — hope you'll join us pic.twitter.com/yBeTlsVkKF
— Diane Sawyer (@DianeSawyer) March 27, 2014
However, nothing has been posted by the governor on his Twitter account regarding the report or its conclusions.
Image via Los Angeles Times, YouTube