When the scandal that became known as \"Bridgegate\" popped about a year ago, there were plenty of people writing the obituary of or at least suggesting serious harm to Chris Christie's likely 2016 presidential campaign. <\/p>\n
Turns out that was premature. <\/p>\n
A state legislative investigation led by Democrats now saysthat it foundno evidence that Christie knew about the closures of access lanes from Fort Lee, N.J., to the George Washington Bridge closures that were initiated by top Christie aides in an apparent act of political retribution. <\/p>\n
From the Bergen Record: <\/p>\n
A report summarizing a yearlong investigation by the legislative panel examining the George Washington Bridge lane closures found no evidence of Governor Christies involvement but concluded that two of his allies acted with perceived impunity when they gridlocked Fort Lees streets apparently for political reasons. <\/p>\n
The committees 136-page report, drawing off sworn testimony, private interviews and thousands of subpoenaed documents, also highlights the unsuccessful efforts by a now-shuttered arm of Christies office to court the Fort Lee mayors endorsement, finding that the closures were motivated in part by political considerations. <\/p>\n
The report states there is no conclusive evidence as to whether the governor was or was not aware of the lane closures or involved in directing them. But it catalogs several unanswered questions surrounding the scandal and cites a lack of cooperation from several key players who invoked their Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination. <\/p>\n
Christie isn't completely out of the woods just yet: The panel is reserving the right to press forwardafter its \"interim report\" (there are some questions being raised about deleted texts between the governor and an aide), and a U.S. attorney is investigating the matter. In addition,the bridge scandal is hardly Christie'sonly 2016 liability, given that his state has repeatedly seen its credit rating downgradedunder him, among other issues. <\/p>\n
But the idea that the bridge scandal negatedChristie's chances of becoming president was always too much of a rush to judgment. For now, Christie can say that Democrats came after him and came up with practicallynothing. And in fact, that's a pretty strong argumentin a 2016 GOP primary. <\/p>\n
Look, the Christie obituaries made plenty of sense. After all, the pieces all fit logically into the narrative of Christies political career. The governors opponents view him as a bully, and this seemed to be the ultimate bit of political bullying extremely petty and callously impacting the lives of thousands of people who did nothing to deserve what became days of snarled traffic. <\/p>\n
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Read this article: <\/p>\n
The Fix: Reports of Chris Christies political demise have been *greatly* exaggerated<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When the scandal that became known as \"Bridgegate\" popped about a year ago, there were plenty of people writing the obituary of or at least suggesting serious harm to Chris Christie's likely 2016 presidential campaign. Continue reading