0 with all the breaking news we didn't get to the flu story go to my facebook page. you can find it there. now to shep. >> the new jersey governor chris christie, a potential g.o.p. contend for the white house in 2016, says he is sorry, is humiliated. we may hear him apologize again in the next hour. he also says he had nothing to do with what appears to be a revenge on a rival. or a plan for revenge that caused days of traffic delays and real disaster in the busiest bridge in all the world. now the feds are investigating. and old high school classmate of governor christie is refusing to testify about this role in the fiasco. took the fifth, and a political opponent is demanding on outside investigation. it's getting warm in jersey. let's get to it. good afternoon to you and yours from the fox news deck. the new jersey governor chris christie says he is heartbroken humiliated that a staffer, a long-term one, lied about creating a traffic nightmare for millions of drivers and apparent plans to gets revenge against a political rival. now with the u.s. attorney announcing he is launching an official investigation, it's turning into an enormous headache at a minimum for the governor of new jersey who analysts say is the leading contender for the republican presidential nomination. >> september, road crews closed three access lanes to the george washington bridge. a crucial link to new york city. the reason officials gave for the unannounced closure, what they called at the time, a traffic study. but yesterday e-mails surfaces that suggested the whole thing was simple. a plan to strike back against a mayor who did not endorse governor christie's re-election campaign. more on those e-mails in a moment. first, the governor spent nearly two hours today answering questions from reporters, telling them he knew nothing about any of this. >> i'm sick over this. i have worked for the last 12 years, in public life, developing a reputation for honesty and directness and blunt talk. one that i think is well-deserved. but when something like this happens, it's appropriate for you to question yourself, and certainly i am. i apple soul searching. all i can do is apologize for the conduct of people who worked for me. i can't do anything else. i can't reverse time. if i could, believe me, would. but i can just apologize. that's all you can do. there's really nothing else to do. >> the governor said he fired a top aide, the woman whom you see here, time for traffic problems in fort lee, she said. she wrote in an e-mail exactly that and got a reply of, "got it." that's the town where thearch didn't endorse the governor and where the road crews closed the lanes. a high school classmate of governor christie, who was an aid, replied, thusly, guy pot it." that official resigned last year. today he was set to testify at hearing and listen to his response. >> on the advice of counsel i assert my right to remain silent. >> that also refers to a meeting with the governor of the same date. >> on the advice of counsel i assert my right to remain silent. >> the attorney then indicated the former official would not answer any questions from the committee. taking the fifth. protecting himself. the panel held him in contempt. that's a misdemeanor in juriesy. then there's a text message exchange in which an unnamed staffer said the traffic jams started on the first day of school and asked, is it wrong i'm smiling in and the man pleading the fifth replied, no. and then i feel bad for the kids. they are the children of bono. she is a state senator and has today called for an outside investigation, and as for the mayor of fort lee, new jersey, one e-mail from fifth amendment guy said, it will be a tough november for this little serbian. the mayor is a croatiaen desscent. >> it's incredible people in pours of positions of authority would be so venomous, i don't get it. i never thought i was important enough, still don't, but i think this is a prime example of the pettiest form of politics. >> good christie says he will travel to fort lee to apologize to mayor in person. the mayor said it's too soon for any sorries and said, i quote, a an apology coming up today might be a bit premature because i have a distinct feeling there's going to be another press conference or another two or three or 12 after this. this is not the end. this appears to be the beginning. judge andrew napolitano is here. but late start with eric. the governor said a lot in a very long news conference. >> more than an hour, and he did say a lot. repeatedly apologizing for what happened, saying that he is heartbroken, about what happened, and absolutely heartsick, and that he was blindsided. said he didn't have anything to do with it. top level officials of his administration, his staff, and his campaign, apparently engaged in the political payback against the democratic mayor of fort lee because he did not endorse governor christie's re-election. >> i am embarrassed and rue millated -- humiliated by the conduct of some people on my team. there's no out in -- no doubt in my mind that the conduct they exhibited is completely unacceptable, and showed a lack of respect for their appropriate role of government, and for the people that were trusted to serve. >> it was a mess last september at the george washington bridge when three lanes in fort lee were closed, delaying thousands and even reportedly doubling response times for ambulances. so today,. >> chris: fired bridge jet anne kelly, his deputy chief of staff, on the right. she sent texts and e-mails about the closings. he said, she lied to him. also severed relations with his former campaign manager for what he called callous indifference in some of the e-mails they sent. >> as governor christie described it today, he got up yesterday morning, had his trainer over, somewhere before 9:00, 8:50 a.m., somebody notified him to take a look at the county record, the newspapers. >> he said this is the first time he heard about that yesterday morning. >> that's when the read the e-mails. >> for the very first time, he said. he again reiterated during the news conference he knew nothing about this scheme, nothing about what happened, nothing about any of this planning and that's when he first found out about it. he also said he did not play any part in it. >> i had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or execution. and i am stunned by the abject statutes herement one is a state law of the state of new jersey, there's a federal law. basically both say the same thing and called misconduct office. abusing the power0s your office for some gain. so, whoever is going to prosecute, if there will be a prosecution -- the u.s. attorney, the job that governor christie had before he was governor -- his successor in that job, paul fishman, announced a fewer -- few hours ago announced hi will open an investigation into anybody in the for's office engaged in misconduct did they abuse their power for some explain good-some gain? and that's the same standard in the state. requires the state attorney general, the christie appointee, or the prosecutor of the county where the city is located. also a christie appointee to investigate the office whether anybody violated state law chisolm already to the federal statute. >> what is -- we also know that traffic times were aslowed down, the beginning of school, and there was a question about a 91-year-old woman, the response time for the ambulance was longer than normal because of this traffic delay, that's the allegation there has been no suggestion from anyone yet that the two might be related. >> now you talking about the state's civil liability. before we talked about can anybody be prosecuted. now you're asking, can people sue the state for what happened? this will be enormously expensive for the state of new jersey. just on the basis of what the governor stated in his press conference this morning. he has, whether you believe him or not, said it was wrong, and it happened, and it was done for the wrong reasons. that practically proves the case of the plaintiffs who will sue. who will sue? fort lee, the town, will sue the state for the disruption and the this case because, after all of the outrage that came out, many people thought it was not properly examined the first time around. so, she was looking at this case for almost five -- four or five months, going over all the evidence, all of the investigation that was done, and when they came to it, she says there wasn't enough evidence there to bring forth those charges. >> my job is to analyze evidence. in this case, there was insufficient evidence to go forward on a sexual assault. so, in this case, it always -- every case boils down to the evidence. >> reporter: and because he pleaded guilty, matthew barnett was sentenced to two years probation and four months of suspended jail time as well. this comes as a blow to the coleman family. they have been pushing for these rape charges all along. back in 2012 when the incident occurred, police said this seemed like a sure-fire case. they had the confessions from the boys that were involved, the girl from their testimony as well, and they said it looked like it was a sure-fire case. so now that the case has been reexamined and these charges have come down in those rape charges not being included, we will see just what happens from family later on. >> the alleged victim is back in the hospital? >> reporter: yes, she is. we spoke with her mother a couple hours ago, me and said this last weekend that her daughter went to a party with some friends, and that when she got home, she found that the people she thought were her friend were abusing her on facebook and social media, commenting about the incident, and the next day she attempted to take her own life. she has been there since sunday night. when we spoke to her in october, she says that bullying over social media was the cause for the previous suicide attempts as well. melinda coleman, the girl's mother, said they're grateful the case has been reexamined and the special prosecutor has been fighting for them, but we haven't spoken to her. we've been calling to see what her reaction is to just a misdemeanor charge being filed, and of course, one thing that does remain is civil charges as a possibility. they haven't south those so far but that is an option they could choose to pursue. >> thank you. people who you have never met could soon have access to your information just by taking your picture. that's a word from the inventors of this facial recognition app for your phone. it's already causing enormous concerns about privacy, not to mention potential legal issues. so how does this work? and could someone take a picture of you walking down the street and suddenly pull up everything there is about you? the answers are surprising, and we'll ask our own lawyers about it. that's next. 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