Hoboken Mayor Stands By Her Claims, Gives Journals To US Attorney

Could this be bigger than #BridgeGhazi? On Sunday, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer stood by her claim that a deputy to New Jersey governor Chris Christie told her during a conversation in a parking lot that any Sandy relief aid the city would get would be ties to the city’s willingness to go along with a real estate project in Hoboken backed by the governor:

“I stand by my word,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “They were holding our Sandy funds hostage.”

Zimmer on Saturday said that Lieutentant Gov. Kim Guadagno told Zimmer that her town would receive a large sum of Sandy relief aid if the mayor pushed for the quick approval of a real estate project important to the governor. … “They’re playing games with the numbers, and that’s a deflection,” Zimmer said Sunday about Christie’s office. “They are hiding behind spokespeople.”

Not long after the CNN appearance, Zimmer had a meeting that may be triggering major flop sweat in the governor’s office:

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer turned over her journal and other documents to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Sunday, which she says show Governor Christie’s administration threatened to withhold Superstorm Sandy aid if she didn’t approve a development.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the office does not discuss publicly its meetings and would not confirm whether the office is investigating Zimmer’s allegations.

The mayor released a statement saying she met with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark for several hours at their request and turned over the journal entry she cited as proof of her conversations with Guadagno and Constable.

“As they pursue this investigation, I will provide any requested information and testify under oath about the facts of what happened when the Lieutenant Governor came to Hoboken and told me that Sandy aid would be contingent on moving forward with a private development project,” Zimmer said in a statement.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.