There seems to be a new Gov. Christie story everyday now regarding the Bridegate scandal and even the Super Bowl couldn't stop it. Another Gov. Christie staffer has fled his administration after being subpoenaed In Bridgegate Scandal.
One of 18 people subpoenaed by a legislative panel in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal has resigned her position as an aide to Gov. Chris Christie, the Associated Press reports.
Christina Genovese Renna, director of departmental relations in the governor’s office, left state government Friday. Renna reported to Bridget Kelly, Christie’s deputy chief of staff, who set the September lane closures in motion with the one-line email, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”
Renna’s lawyer, Henry Klingeman, confirmed the resignation in a statement to the AP. The statement said Renna had been considering leaving the governor’s office since Christie won re-election in November. Renna served as a liaison to the Legislature and local officials in her government post.
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Renna’s resignation came on the same day that one of those Port Authority allies,David Wildstein, suggested “evidence exists” Christie was untruthful when he said he knew nothing of the lane closures while they were taking place.
If the name Christina Genovese Renna seems familiar to you it might be because of Rachel Maddow's reporting on the Fort Lee lane closings. She was part of an email chain with her boss, Bridget Kelly.
There's something else going on, too though, that does not jibe with how the Governor has explained this scandal and his knowledge of if and his role in it. The day after this picture was taken of Chris Christie and David Wildstein together during the traffic jam on September 11th, the day after that, that was a Thursday, the day … so that was a Wednesday. The day after that was a Thursday which is while the shutdown was still going on. And on Thursday, the day after that photo was taken. Thursday. This email was sent between two people who work in Governor Christie's office; between two of his top staffers. Christina Genovese Renna. She’s the Director of Departmental Relations for the State of New Jersey. I know it’s obscure. A lot of people have job titles like that in New Jersey. It can be confusing. In this case what it means is that she worked in the Governor's office and she reported to Bridget Kelly, who’s the Governor's Deputy Chief of Staff who we now know is the person who ordered Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee, to which David Wildstein responded, Got it. So during the shutdown, while it was still happening before the Executive Director of the Authority intervened and forced them to stop doing what they were doing, Fort Lee was into its fourth day of gridlock because of this man-made shutdown. And on that fourth day, on Thursday, Christina Renna wrote to Bridget Kelly this email about the Fort Lee traffic disaster and the mayor of Fort Lee.
Dear Bridget, this afternoon Evan received a call from Mayor Sokolich. The Mayor’s extremely upset about the reduction of toll lanes from 3 to 1. Not only is it causing horrendous traffic backup in town, but first responders are having a terrible time maneuvering the traffic because the backup is so severe. The Mayor told Evan he has no idea why Port Authority decided to do this, but there is a feeling in town that it is government retribution for something. He simply can't understand why that would be the case however, because he has always been so supportive of the Governor. Evan told the fine Mayor, he was unaware the toll lanes were closed, but would see what he could find out.
This is an email during the bridge shutdown. It's to Bridget Kelly who ordered the bridge shutdown. It is from Christina Renna, who worked in the Governor's office. The Evan who is referenced in the email, we think is probably Evan J. Ridley, who also works in the Governor's office. Nobody seems to know what his exact job title is other than Aide to the Governor. Public payroll information shows that he works in the Governor's office as an Aide and gets paid $52,000 a year. Other than that, all we know is that he works in the Governor's office. All of them do. And that means that during the shut down, three people who work in the Governor’s office are emailing about the ongoing bridge lane shutdown and the disaster that it's causing and the allegation that it's politically motivated. There’s no discussion whatsoever about there being some traffic study which the Governor says was the prevailing belief about what was happening with that bridge. And this was contemporaneous to the problem. This wasn’t long after the fact when there’s some newspaper article about it in retrospect that alerted everybody that in fact there had been some problem that’s now resolved. This was during the event. And that means that the Governor has absolutely and blatantly not told the truth about what was going on in his office.
Very interesting indeed.
