Federal authorities will meet tomorrow for a pretrial hearing on the George Washington Bridge lane closures. Tonight, new questions surrounding some of the players and practices of the Port Authority that were uncovered because of the Bridgegate investigation. NJTV News Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron has been following the story. He spoke with Briana Vannozzi.
Vannozzi: Michael, tell us what’s being reported right now.
Aron: Briana, yesterday the New York Observer reported that former Port Authority Chairman David Samson would plead guilty this week or next week to a single felony count related to what became known as the chairman’s flight. That was the special flight that United Airlines appeared to set up just to carry favor with the chairman of the Port Authority who runs the New York area airport. A flight from Newark to South Carolina to right near his weekend home, his vacation home. When he stepped down, they canceled this money-losing flight and apparently — reportedly, in the New York Observer — Samson’s going to take a plea in relation to that.
Vannozzi: Does that confirmed, have you confirmed this story?
Aron: We’ve tried to confirm it for 24 hours now — unsuccessfully. Samson’s spokeswoman, Karen Kessler, referred us to the lead defense attorney who is former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Chertoff has not responded to several messages. There’s a high powered legal team behind Samson and it includes Justin Walder and Angelo Genova, two very well known New Jersey lawyers.
Vannozzi: You know these folks pretty well. What does that say that you can’t break through?
Aron: I know. Well, it says that this is sensitive and that the strategy has been not to comment on it.
Vannozzi: David Samson. We know Gov. Christie appointed him to be the chairman of the Port Authority. Who is he to power players in New Jersey?
Aron: He is one of them. He’s one of the leading power players in New Jersey. He’s been a pillar of the legal establishment for decades. He founded a very successful firm, Wolf and Samson. He became a Republican attorney general in a Democratic administration under Jim McGreevey. Gov. Christie tapped him to be his transition chairman, the same position that Christie’s playing for Donald Trump right now. He was just a very highly respected and well liked, down to Earth guy who got into trouble late in his career and he’s not in great health. In fact, when he closed Wolf and Samson last year, he gave as one of the reasons, declining health. He’s 76.
Vannozzi: Quickly tell us if this is confirmed to be true is there fallout here? What’s the significance and what’s the significance for Gov. Christie?
Aron: I think broadly speaking if this story is true it’s good for Gov. Christie because there was an assumption that to help himself, David Samson might implicate others. Samson has opted to plead guilty, according to the story, but not to corporate with the government. He’s not going to testify, give testimony about anyone else. Obviously this is good for Christie because he doesn’t have anything on Christie that he can share and this is at a time when the governor is under great scrutiny for his role in the Trump campaign and his standing in the VP stakes as it were. Good for Bill Baroni potentially too.
Vannozzi: Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron, thank you for joining us.
Aron: Thanks, Briana.