Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher, the firm hired by New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie to conduct his own internal investigation into the scandal surrounding the politically motivated closing of lanes on the George Washington Bridge said Thursday Christie had no involvement in the incident.
"We further found no evidence that anyone in the governor's office, besides Bridget Kelly knew of this idea in advance, played any role in the decision or the implementation of it," Christie's lawyer Randy Mastro said speaking at a press conference Thursday.
A report released by the firm Thursday said Christie didn't know of the bridge lane closings in advance, didn't know of the lane closings while they occurred, and the only individual within Christie's administration who knew of the lane closure was his former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Kelly.
The report said that the Port Authority employee David Wildstein orchestrated the lane closures because of "some ulterior motive to target Mayor Sokolich," the Fort Lee, N.J., mayor who declined to endorse Christie for reelection.
"We further found based on our investigation that David Wildstein was the person who originated this idea and orchestrated it," Mastro said. "That David Wildstein went to Bridget Kelly for approval in the governor's office and that they had an ulterior motive for implementing that decision to in someway target Mayor Sokolic in Fort Lee."
Mastro said he didn't know what the ulterior motive was, but that evidence didn't support the idea that it was an act against Sokolic for not endorsing Christie for reelection.
Christie's lawyer also said allegations by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer that the Christie administration withheld Hurricane Sandy aid unless she agreed to fast-track a development project of Christie's allies within the city to be "unsubstantiated and demonstrably false."