HOBOKEN – A lawyer hired by the city of Hoboken to represent Mayor Dawn Zimmer throughout the investigation into her claims against the administration of Gov. Christopher Christie issued a strongly worded response on Monday to a request from Christie’s own lawyer to conduct private interviews with Zimmer and several of her aides, according to a report on Bloomberg.com.
“We question whether it is appropriate for the governor’s office, in essence, to be investigating itself, particularly when an investigation of the same subject matter is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s office,” wrote Gerald Krovatin, Zimmer’s lawyer, to Randy Mastro of the firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.
Mastro was hired by the Christie administration recently to respond to any subpoenas that might result from the investigation into Zimmer’s claims that the governor’s administration pressured her on a development deal, and any subpoenas due to the ongoing “Bridgegate” scandal.
Mastro had also requested interviews with Zimmer aides Juan Melli and Dan Bryan, as well as Councilmen-at-Large Ravi Bhalla and David Mello.
Meanwhile, Mastro pressed forward with other potential probes into the Zimmer administration, filing requests under the Open Public Records Acts (OPRA) for any correspondence between Zimmer and various media organizations from the days leading up to the weekend of Jan. 18, when the mayor revealed her accusations publicly on MSNBC, according to NJ.com. Also included in the request is an unedited and unredacted copy of Zimmer’s journal, which she has shared with MSNBC and the U.S. Attorney’s office.
According to NJ.com, the city has denied the request for Zimmer’s diary, but has asked all city officials named in the OPRA request to supply any correspondence between themselves and the New York Times.
oday is the final day for the city to respond to Mastro’s request (the OPRA act allows municipalities seven days to respond to a request). – Dean DeChiaro
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