Has Chris Christie's Old High School Chum Struck A Deal With The Feds?
According to reporting from Bloomberg – apparently single-source reporting that no other outlets feel comfortable confirming yet – David Wildstein, a political fixture in New Jersey and formerly one of Gov. Chris Christie’s top appointees at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is set to plead guilty to a still-unknown charge or charges “as early as” Friday at the federal courthouse in downtown Newark.
Originally, Bloomberg’s story pegged the date for that plea as Thursday. Then Friday. Now “as early as” Friday, which could mean that we’ll see flying cars sooner.
The ratio of speculation-to-verifiable facts in Bridgegate has always been lopsided when it comes to reporting on the activities and intentions of U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman. For months - and by months, I mean since last June (!) - I’ve had well-placed sources warning me that Fishman’s office had indictments waiting just around the corner. The first of those claims was made in print a year ago, and as enthusiasm for the story ebbed amid a burgeoning presidential campaign and string of aviation disasters, these warnings became a kind of background noise. Reporting on the prosecutorial side of Bridgegate has always been difficult because the prosecutor and his deputies simply do not let information flow freely – a corrective reaction to the habits of Fishman’s predecessor: Chris Christie. Christie was the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey from 2002 until 2008 and relished marching handcuffed pols before cameras. The scalps he collected through corruption stings built up the kind of resume a Republican needed if he wanted a shot at winning the governorship from an incumbent Democrat in a labor-friendly northeastern state that’s run blue in every presidential contest since 1992.
Crucial to Christie’s ascendancy was the narrative crafted week after week by David Wildstein. The two went to high school together in Livingston, N.J., then Wildstein returned from college and won election to local office in that town. He subsequently became the anonymous force behind PoliticsNJ.com (now PolitickerNJ.com) using as a nom de plume the visage of deceased early 20th century GOP Gov. Walter ‘Wally’ Edge.
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/chris-christie-david-wildstein
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