A special committee of New Jersey lawmakers probing the Bridgegate scandal will also look into new claims that the administration of Gov. Chris Christie used Hurricane Sandy relief money as a political weapon, the group’s chairman said Sunday.
State Assemblyman John Wisniewski said Democratic Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer was a “serious voice” who made “serious allegations” that top Christie aides threatened to withhold aid for her flood-ravaged city unless she backed a massive development plan favored by the Republican governor.
“I think we have to give the allegations serious thought. Because it is a pattern that we’ve heard time and time again throughout New Jersey,” Wisniewski, a Democrat, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Zimmer expanded her charges Sunday after Christie spokesmen on Saturday accused her of playing “partisan politics” and saying “outlandishly false things” to get on TV.
Zimmer told CNN’s “State of the Union” that she’s willing to testify under oath about getting a “direct threat” from Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who Zimmer said also told her “that this was a direct message from the governor.”
“I mean it is stunning. It’s outrageous. But it is true, and I stand by my word,” Zimmer said.
To bolster her claims, Zimmer has released handwritten notes she says detail the devastating impact of her discussions last year with Guadagno and Richard Constable, Christie’s community-affairs commissioner.
“Embarassed (sic) to say — but I found myself breaking down on the plane. I was . . . thinking about my dad — and so I cried for him,” she wrote.
“But then I was emotional about Governor Christie . . . This week, I found out he’s cut from the same corrupt cloth that I’ve been fighting for the last [four years]. I am so disappointed. It literally brings tears to my eyes.,” she wrote.