The Mastro Report ordered by Gov. Chrstie after Bridgegate hit the fan is the gift that just keeps on giving. Or, maybe more appropriately, keeps on taking from taxpayers. There has been another $311,000 billed to the state by the Gibson and Dunn law firm. That brings the total to $7.6 million. The Attorney General’s Office said Friday — on the day that Christie was spending the second of two days in New Hampshire — the $311,000 was for a period of December through April. Why did it take him so long to get around to telling taxpayers?
The taxpayers are footing the bill because Gov. Christie hired Randy Mastro’s team of lawyers to conduct an internal investigation after the lanes to the George Washington bridge were closed, tying up traffic for four days. The Mastro report exonerated Christie of all wrongdoing. Christie used it then — and now — to support his contention he knew nothing about the bridge caper. The report was done after 75 interviews which, among other things, helped give the lawyers a chance to talk to potential witnesses before they talked to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Polls show New Jerseyans regard the Mastro report as a “whitewash.”
“It seemed crazy to me to do what they did,” Robert Del Tufo, a former New Jersey Attorney General and U.S. Attorney, said of Christie’s ordering up an internal investigation. “They spent over a million dollars of taxpayer money. It’s unusual in an internal investigation not to take down transcripts of what people said, and presumably they just summarized things so they could put a slant on what people said.”
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