TRENTON – Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg and Assembly Deputy Speaker John Wisniewski, the co-chairs of the Special Legislative Committee that investigated the Bridgegate lane closures, released the following statement today in response to the disclosure of text messages by Christina Renna that appear to contradict the former gubernatorial aide’s testimony before the committee:
“This disclosure is very disturbing because the text messages appear to contradict the sworn testimony by Ms. Renna, a key member of Gov. Christie’s staff, before our committee. At that time, she stated clearly that she had no knowledge of any role in the lane closures by the governor or his staff.
(Renna’s testimony: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/legislativepub/pubhear/lsi05062014.pdf)
“These text messages reaffirm the suspicion that there is much more to this story still to be learned. Even now, nearly two years later, the more we learn the more the people of New Jersey are justified in their distrust of this governor and his administration. We know the governor’s internal investigation was bogus, and we’ve long questioned the governor’s statement at his Dec. 13, 2013 news conference. We now know we weren’t the only ones concerned about Governor Christie’s truthfulness.”
“The messages from Ms. Renna to a Christie campaign staffer saying that the Governor was lying mean that she was lying as well. She claimed that the Governor ‘flat out lied’ in his news conference when he denied that any of his senior staff was involved. She made the same type of denial before our committee, which raises the obvious questions about the truthfulness of her testimony.
“We urge the U.S. Attorney to review these text messages in the context of Ms. Renna’s prior testimony and the Governor’s previous statements. It appears as though there are inconsistencies and contradictions in the explanations by many of the principals. The people of New Jersey still deserve the full truth of what happened with this abuse of government power, and if that truth does not come out during the upcoming trial, we stand ready to resume asking questions.”