Chris Christie, Most Likely not Lying, Continues to Be 'Convicted' by Democrats Who Want Him Out of 2016 White House Race

The Chris Christie affair is heating up into a fullblown take-sides political rehearsal for the 2016 presidential race. Alan Dershowitz, the former Harvard law professor who has been identified with liberal causes but who has become more 'scholarly' in his positions recently, told Newsmax on Friday "the dominoes are beginning to fall" in the spiraling bridgegate scandal that threatens New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. "I think he hasn't told the whole truth and is in trouble...The US attorney should now subpoena the documents that were referred to in the letter and should sit down and talk to the governor,....The governor so far has not spoken to law enforcement nor has he spoken under oath, so legally, he can lie all he wants," Dershowitz said. "He's not obliged to tell the truth. Politically, he may be obliged to tell the truth, but legally he's not. But once he sits down and talks to law enforcement, he has to tell the truth, otherwise he can be prosecuted for a crime. They have to lock in his testimony as soon as possible, before he knows what all the dominoes are, and he has to give those answers," Dershowitz added. "That what the US attorney's office should do now. The sooner the better." Dershowitz's comments came after the lawyer for David Wildstein, a former Christie appointee for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, disclosed that his client had evidence that proves the Republican governor knew early on about the lane closures that snarled traffic on the George Washington Bridge for four days last September. Alan Zegas, who represents Wildstein, said in a letter published by the New York Times and the Star-Ledger that it was "the Christie administration's order" to close the lanes at the town of Fort Lee. The letter added that "evidence exists tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a press conference." But, Zegas was asking the Port Authority to reconsider its decision not to pay Wildstein's legal bills, according to The Star-Ledger. Wildstein, who resigned in December when the scandal broke, ordered the abrupt and unannounced closure of commuter lanes leading to the bridge, causing massive gridlock. In a Friday statement, Christie's office said he told the truth about what he knew about the politically motivated lane closings : "Mr. Wildstein's lawyer confirms what the governor has said all along: He had absolutely no prior knowledge of the lane closures before they happened and whatever Mr. Wildstein's motivations were for closing them to begin with,....As the governor said in a December 13 press conference, he only first learned lanes were closed when it was reported by the press and, as he said in his January 9 press conference, had no indication that this was anything other than a traffic study until he read otherwise the morning of January 8. The governor denies Mr. Wildstein's lawyer's other assertions." The US attorney in New Jersey, Paul Fishman, said in January that he would open an investigation into the bridge lane closings. Dershowitz said : "Fishman must give immunity to Wildstein - and he's going to have to testify and tell the whole truth and be asked hard questions,....But regardless, Christie is in trouble,....if he is smart, and he is smart, he's talking to somebody behind the scenes - a very good criminal lawyer." Dershowitz also said that Friday's disclosures illustrated a personal rift between Wildstein and the governor over the bridge scandal. The men have known each other since high school, according to news reports, but Christie made negative comments about Wildstein at the December 13 press conference. "Governor Christie really made this stupid mistake by treating Wildstein the way he did. He provoked him. Christie showed his total ineptness when he said what he said about Wildstein at the press conference." And Obama advisor John Podesta gave his first public interview after joining the Obama White House team to Bloomberg, saying allegations that Governor Christie knew about lane closures on the George Washington Bridge may be “a killer” to the New Jersey Republican’s presidential ambitions. “I don’t think there’s any coming back,” Podesta told Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” airing this weekend. "If it’s true Christie knew about the lane closures, I don’t think there’s any coming back.” Meanwhile, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, the only Republican who consistently supports Christie publicly, on Friday questioned the strength of the disclosure by Wildstein's lawyer : “I'm not sure it is a bombshell,” Giuliani told CNN. “It is a statement with a lot of ambiguity - some good for the governor, some that creates questions. The part that is good - it’s clear the governor didn't know about it beforehand, right?....The question is when did he find out about it." The letter from Zegas said that his client "contests the accuracy of various statements that the Republican governor made about him and he can prove the inaccuracy of some." But, Giuliani noted that the letter gives no indication what the evidence is. In a statement released late Friday, Christie's office said that the key allegation in the Zegas letter - that Christie knew about the closures when they happened - does not contradict what the governor had said at his news conferences in December and on January 9. Giuliani, a former US attorney and GOP presidential candidate, expressed support for Christie in an exclusive Newsmax interview when news of the scandal broke earlier this month. He told CNN on Friday that the Zegas letter might be a ploy for immunity for Wildstein : "Mr. Wildstein is very much wanting to get immunity from the government,....He is negotiating for immunity. Who knows, he may even ratchet up his allegations in order to get immunity." Still, Giuliani said that he would advise against Christie holding another news conference similar to the January session, which lasted two hours and during which he accepted responsibility for the closures on the world's busiest bridge. "I would let all these facts play themselves out before he makes a final complete statement about this," he told CNN. "Who knows how people are going to change their statements? Who knows how much they're going to be motivated to exaggerate? There are so many perils here. "He's answered everything he can answer," Giuliani added. "The governor should wait until this thing is over and get all the fact on the table." In another interview, Giuliani told POLITICO Thursday he’s “offended” by how the media characterized an earlier remark he made about the bridge scandal. Giuliani had seemed to suggest in a radio nterview that there was a “50-50” chance that Christie knew ahead of time about the bridge ane closures that one of his aides helped orchestrate in an apparent act of political retribution. Christie has adamantly denied advance knowledge of the traffic scheme. Giuliani was asked on Geraldo Rivera’s 77 WABC radio program whether an email in August from Christie’s then-deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, about “traffic problems in Fort Lee” implied that earlier discussions with the governor had taken place about the lane closures in the northern New Jersey town. The question came during a discussion on the radio program, aired Thursday, about a recent New York Times story detailing Christie’s political operation. “With the governor?” Giuliani said on the radio. “No, it doesn’t. I mean, no, it’s 50-50. I mean, it leaves you with no possible way of knowing: Did she discuss it with him or didn’t she discuss it with him?” In an interview later Thursday, Giuliani said his “50-50” comment was taken out of context. The “it” he was referring to in his 50-50 remark, Giuliani said, was the Times piece. Giuliani said he was “offended” that his remark was being held up as evidence he had doubts about Christie’s veracity. The former New York mayor noted that he went on to praise and defend Christie on the show, making clear that in any government, there is some small percentage of things that go on that the chief executive is simply unaware of. ~~~~~ Dear readers, there's a lot of road left to travel before we know enough to make an informed evaluation of what really happened vis-à-vis that now-famous bridge in New Jersey. I continue to think that Chris Christie, a former US attorney, would not step into the trap of lying if he knew he would be found out. We all also know that Christie is the GOP presidential candidate most feared by Democrats. Is Christie being set up? Maybe. Did Christie know what was going on or participate in it. Not likely. Will the Democrat political machine continue to use the media to 'convict' him without a fair trial? Absolutely.