NJ Watchdog: Court orders Christie to release his ‘valuable asset’ media list

A New Jersey court is standing by its order to force Gov. Chris Christie to reveal a key cog in his taxpayer-funded publicity machine – a multi-tiered, high-tech list of 2,500 media contacts.

Judge Mary C. Jacobson denied Christie’s motion for reconsideration during a hearing Friday in Mercer County Superior Court. She ordered the governor’s office to release the record by Aug. 17 and pay for New Jersey Watchdog’s legal fees.

“The media strategy of the governor seems to me to be something that is of general public interest,” said Jacobson, rejecting the state’s reasons why the list be should be kept secret.

In response to a direct question, press secretary Kevin Roberts would not confirm or deny whether the governor's office has shared the supposedly confidential list with Christie's PAC, the state Republican Party or other political entities.

“Given that this issue is still the subject of pending litigation, we cannot comment," said Roberts in a prepared statement that hints Christie may appeal Jacobson's ruling. Technically, unless there is an appeal, the case is over.

The media list was created by the governor’s communications staff, which consists of 16 full-time state employees paid $1.36 million in salaries last year, New Jersey Watchdog found.

It helped the governor score countless national television appearances, not to mention 8,761,511 views on YouTube, 176,955 likes on Facebook and 6,810 tweets to 489,000 followers on Twitter during his first five years in office. The media campaign helped turn Christie into a national figure and set the stage for run for the White House.

The full story is online at http://watchdog.org/233312/christie-media-list/.

NJ WATCHDOG: Christie staff caught misleading NJ court in travel records dispute

For Immediate Release:

What happens when Gov. Chris Christie’s staff is caught lying to a New Jersey court about the existence of public records?

That legal bombshell may explode in Mercer County Superior Court this week in the governor’s battle with a New Jersey Watchdog reporter over travel expense accounts.

Documents surfaced that directly contradict the claims of Christie’s lawyers that the governor and his staff do not use state credit cards for travel and don’t have any records.

“The governor’s office does not use Travel Cards and thus does not have Travel Card statements,” stated Christie associate counsel Javier Diaz in a certification filed with the court. Similar to an affidavit, a certification carries penalties for willful false statements.

Yet an American Express card issued to the state is how the governor’s office paid for $8,146 worth of airfare for Christie’s entourage in January 2013 to the Super Bowl in New Orleans. The four passengers were Christie, his wife Mary Pat, chief of staff Kevin O’Dowd and planning director Daniel Robles.

The statements for the corporate AMEX card, received from another source, were addressed to the "NJ Governor's Office" at the Statehouse in care of Robles. The card was used again to charge $1,687 of additional expenses in February 2013.

“The state should not be playing semantics with whatever it calls the small piece of plastic that is whipped out to pay for the governor’s $8,000 worth of first-class airfare, among other things,” argued the reporter’s attorney, Donald M. Doherty Jr., in a brief to Judge Mary C. Jacobson.

Other hidden records from the Super Bowl trip include a $7,583 invoice for three hotel rooms in the names of Christie, O’Dowd and Robles. Christie's room and hotel expenses alone cost taxpayers $3,371. The name of the hotel and itemized bills were redacted from the documents.

The full story is now online at http://watchdog.org/177595/christie-travel-lawsuit-3/.