Christie administration cleared in probe it hired

NEW YORK (AP) — Gov. Chris Christie was not involved in a plot to create gridlock near a major bridge in a scheme directed at a mayor, lawyers hired by the administration reported Thursday while also defending the integrity of their internal review amid separate federal and legislative investigations.

The taxpayer-funded report released by former federal prosecutor Randy Mastro relied on interviews with Christie and other officials in his administration and 250,000 documents, many of them emails and text messages. But the key figures in the plot would not cooperate with Mastro’s investigation, leading Democrats to question the credibility of the report and its thoroughness.

The investigation concluded Christie had no knowledge beforehand of lane closings in September near the George Washington Bridge between New Jersey and New York that caused four days of massive gridlock in the community of Fort Lee.

Democrats blasted the findings, with the party’s national committee calling the report “nothing more than an expensive sham.”  

The report did not find even minor missteps by Christie and his inner circle. It cast Christie as a leader who was deeply troubled about the possibility that staff members were not being truthful to him — asking “with tears in his eyes” whether any of his top aides were involved in the lane closure.

Mastro’s report comes out ahead of results from independent investigations by federal prosecutors and a special committee of state lawmakers.