ft. lee into giving them what they wanted. with that parcel of land. the mayor in turn wore a wire for the fbi and the investors funding corp guys went to prison and never developed the land. so that it was still undeveloped when leona helmsley bought it in the 1980s. she planned to put up four big high-rises on that land. those plans got scrapped when she, too, had to go to prison. well now that same parcel of land really is being developed. this time with no mention of prison at all but the leona helmsley years of owning that property next to the george washington bridge, leona helmsley years came up in a weird time in the investigation of the current bridge-related scandal in chris christie s new jersey. the bridge lanes were shut down in the george washington bridge in september. it was back in november of last year which was the time when really only the new jersey press was covering the story. this was before david wildstein had resigned, before bill baroni
a cover story to obscure the real reasons the lanes on that bridge were shut down. joining us now, sean of the bergen record. prestigious george polk journalism award for his excellent and groundbreaking coverage of the bridge lane closings. congratulations on that polk. i appreciate it. couple things that have broken. one is the news substantiating the early claims from the ft. lee mayor that port authority police told people who were stuck in the traffic jam they ought to blame the mayor. why is that an important development? well, significant because on its face, it doesn t quite make sense. the mayor of ft. lee doesn t control the bridge, doesn t control the three lanes that blend into the one that cause the mayhem. so the idea that the mayor of ft. lee would be responsible is just wrong. there s no scenario under which that would make sense. so that raises a logical question. why were police saying that? was it a coordinated attempt to send a message?
to assume that police officers who are stationed at that bridge know the ft. lee mayor has very little control over the bridge. there s also the story about the port authority police lieutenant who apparently did a ridearound with david wildstein the first morning of the bridge closures in order to presumably see the damage caused by those lanes being shut down. he is somebody steve kornacki s reporting on who has longstanding family connection to the governor. the governor tonight denying ever speaking to him about this matter. what do you think is the significance there? for me the significance is you have another name, someone else who appears to have been aware that this was causing problems and have and was in a car with the same person who planned it. if you recall in the documents, there s a text that says, ft. lee traffic disaster. based on steve kornacki s reporting, that s a text message from chip michaels. in the context of other comments that seem to relish the traffi
commutes that should take minutes are taking hours. kids cannot get to school. people are missing work. it s been four days now. you have to stop this. and he said this, specifically, as to why it might be happening. the mayor wrote this, quote, many members of the public indicated to me the port authority police officers are advising commuters in response to their complaints that this recent traffic debacle is the result of a decision that i as mayor recently made. according to the mayor, he says he found out even as the bridge lane shutdown was still in effect, he says that port authority police were telling people stuck in the traffic jam that the traffic jam was the mayor s fault and they should blame him. they should call him and complain. now, to be clear, the police officers from ft. lee, the ft. lee police department, they had no idea what was going on with the shutdown. remember, they were totally blindsided. they had no notice, no warning, no explanation. what we re talking a
mobsters to bribe the mayor of ft. lee into giving them what they wanted. with that parcel of land. the mayor in turn wore a wire for the fbi and the investors funding corp guys went to prison and never developed the land. so that it was still undeveloped when leona helmsley bought it in the 1980s. she planned to put up four big high-rises on that land. those plans got scrapped when she, too, had to go to prison. well now that same parcel of land really is being developed. this time with no mention of prison at all but the leona helmsley years of owning that property next to the george washington bridge, leona helmsley years came up in a weird time in the investigation of the current bridge-related scandal in chris christie s new jers jersey. the bridge lanes were shut down in the george washington bridge in september. it was back in november of last year which was the time when really only the new jersey press was covering the story. this was before david wildstein