HOBOKEN — Most New Jersey political watchers expect imminent indictments from the U.S. Attorney’s office in its year-plus investigation of the administration of Gov. Chris Christie, but according to a Wall Street Journal report, they will most likely not be related to Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s early 2014 allegations that Christie officials pressured her to support a development project.
Citing individuals with knowledge of the probe, The Wall Street Journal said no interviews have been conducted with anyone in connection to Zimmer’s claims in almost a year. By contrast, The New York Times reported in early April that federal investigators had interviewed members of the Borough Council of Fort Lee, the town at the center of Christie’s Bridgegate scandal, “in recent weeks.”
Through her spokesman Juan Melli, Zimmer declined to comment for the Reporter on the status of the U.S. Attorney’s investigation for the time being. She has consistently eschewed public statements on the probe since last spring.
In January 2014, Zimmer told the media that high-ranking Christie officials, including Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, had linked Hurricane Sandy relief aid for Hoboken to her support for a development project. The high-rise office project in question, proposed by the Rockefeller Group for three blocks of northern Hoboken, was represented by a Christie-linked lawyer at the time.
Guadagno and the other officials implicated have consistently denied the allegations.
According to the Journal’s sources, investigators didn’t find evidence to corroborate Zimmer’s claims. “There is no spotlight on this,” an individual involved in the Hoboken matter told the Journal.
Because they involve supposed threats made in private one-on-one conversations, Zimmer’s allegations may have proved harder than other Christie-related claims to corroborate, according to white-collar defense attorneys interviewed by the Journal.
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