Chris Christie Extreme Positions On Issues

Donald Trump replaced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with Vice President elect Mike Pence, to head his transition team efforts, just days after the election. Chris Christie was demoted to vice chair of the transition efforts.

Federal investigators are looking into whether Governor Chris Christie's administration committed securities law violations by spending nearly $2 billion of Port Authority funds on a state owned bridge. It is illegal to spend Port Authority funds on state owned infrastructure, but the Christie administration lobbied heavily to classify the bridge as an access road to the Lincoln Tunnel even though they are not connected. Investigators are attempting to determine if Governor Christie violated the Martin Act, which enables the state of New York to file suit if they feel Christie intentionally misled bond holders.

Shortly after his election, Governor Christie appointed two of his friends and political donors, John and Mary Kay Strangfeld, to the typically ceremonial positions of chairman and vice chairman at the Drumthwacket Foundation, a nonprofit that has restored and maintains the New Jersey Governors mansion. John Strangfeld is also the chairman of the insurance agency Prudential, a company that received a record-setting $250 million dollar tax incentive to move its Newark headquarters only a few blocks down the street. The number averages out to the taxpayers spending $527,000 per job that was created in the handout.

The state Ethics Commission has approved Governor Chris Christie's recommendation of Susana Espasa Guerrero, a longtime loyalist and former employee of the Governor, to head the ethics panel that will investigate the bridge closure scandal the Governor finds himself in. Ms. Guerrero has also worked with every single individual who has been subpoenaed in the case.

A former prosecutor in New Jersey has come forward to claim that he was fired after refusing to drop a criminal case against a friend of Governor Chris Christie. Ben Barlyn, the former prosecutor in question, claimed that he was fired shortly after filing multiple charges against Republican Sheriff Deborah Trout. He was replaced with a Christie ally that quickly dropped the charges. Mr. Barlyn has petitioned the state Attorney General's office to release grand jury testimony that he says will back up his accusations.

Former track star Carl Lewis claims that Governor Christie personally intervened and dissuaded him from launching a bid to run for an open state Senate seat that the Governor's friend was running for. Lewis claims that Governor Christie told him that "I'm going to come after you" and threatened to drop plans to appoint him as the states fitness ambassador if he ran against his friend. Governor Christie has denied the accusation by Lewis.

The Administration of Chris Christie has been accused of withholding millions of Sandy emergency relief funds for a New Jersey town that refused to approve a massive redevelopment plan that the governor favored. The mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, claimed that Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno and Richard Constable, who is Governor Christie’s community affairs commissioner spoke on behalf of the Governor in making the demand. While the two officials in question have denied the allegations, recently released documents seem to say otherwise. Dawn Zimmer, who is the mayor, also said that she will be happy to speak under oath and take a lie detector in order to prove her claims.

Governor Chris Christie is under a Federal investigation regarding possible misuse of federal funds given to New Jersey after the state was ravaged by super storm Sandy back in 2012. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has concluded after an initial audit that a full investigation is warranted into whether Christie used his position to choose a politically friendly public relations company to air television advertisements encouraging people to visit New Jersey over another company that bid over two million less.