{"id":20618,"date":"2014-09-22T12:12:53","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T19:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=20618"},"modified":"2014-09-22T12:12:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T19:12:53","slug":"corruption-with-impunity-the-imaginary-exoneration-of-chris-christie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=20618","title":{"rendered":"Corruption With Impunity: The Imaginary Exoneration Of Chris Christie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week the Department of Justice gave a statement to NBC News regarding their investigation into New Jersey governor Chris Christie. The statement was an update on “Bridge-Gate,”<\/em> the dangerous, unlawful, and politically motivated closure of several lanes of the George Washington Bridge orchestrated by his administration. It didn’t take long for NBC’s story to become widely misinterpreted by much of the conservative media. According to NBC News<\/a>…<\/p>\n

“The U.S. Justice Department investigation into Gov. Chris Christie\u2019s role in the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal has thus far uncovered no evidence indicating that he either knew in advance or directed the closure of traffic lanes on the span, federal officials tell NBC 4 New York.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That statement formed the basis of a broad campaign to rehabilitate the sagging public image of Christie who is anticipated to be a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Many pseudo-news enterprises published stories that described Christie as “vindicated,”<\/em> “innocent”<\/em> or “falsely accused.”<\/em> Calls from right-wing media critics went out to insure that coverage of Christie’s alleged exoneration was equal to that which took place while the allegations were being investigated. There’s just one problem.<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Christie has not been exonerated. The report by NBC News said only that no evidence had been uncovered “so far.”<\/em> The feds explicitly stated that the investigation is ongoing and that no conclusion has been reached. What’s more, there is still an investigation being conducted by New Jersey state officials that is separate from the federal probe and involves different violations of law.<\/p>\n

The Christie thumpers need to reserve their celebration until all of the pending investigations are concluded. That does not appear to be imminent. And even if Christie manages to squirm out of any finding of direct culpability, he still needs to answer for how so many of his senior staffers were involved in a sleazy, criminal conspiracy without his knowledge. Either he knew and has successfully covered it up, or he didn’t know and is an incompetent who can’t control his felonious underlings.<\/p>\n

That’s not a great place from which to shape a presidential campaign. Your starting off with a significant disadvantage if you have to choose between these slogans: “Christie: He got away with it,”<\/em> or “Christie: Because he don’t know nothin.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The last shoe has yet to drop in this affair. These sort of political shenanigans often take some time to unwind as the players jockey for position in order to cop a plea and avoid the consequences of their shady behavior. It is way too soon for Christie to pop the Champagne corks. Likewise, it is too soon for his media boosters to begin writing his victory speech. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week the Department of Justice gave a statement to NBC News regarding their investigation into New Jersey governor Chris Christie. The statement was an update on “Bridge-Gate,” the dangerous, unlawful, and politically motivated closure of several lanes of the George Washington Bridge orchestrated by his administration. It didn’t take long for NBC’s story to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Corruption With Impunity: The Imaginary Exoneration Of Chris Christie","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[152,1,684],"tags":[953,301],"class_list":["post-20618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election","category-general","category-media-bias","tag-chris-christie","tag-republicans"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/christie-corrupt-2016.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-5my","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29052,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=29052","url_meta":{"origin":20618,"position":0},"title":"Chris Christie: Telling It Like It Is – If “IT” is Vulgar, Tactless, And Rude","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/30\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Republican Party has its fourteenth official candidate to be their nominee for President of the United States. This morning Chris Christie made his announcement from his hometown in New Jersey. Christie joins a parade of hopefuls, none of whom have succeeded in igniting much enthusiasm on the part of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Chris Christie 2016","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/christie-corrupt-2016.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/christie-corrupt-2016.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/christie-corrupt-2016.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11234,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=11234","url_meta":{"origin":20618,"position":1},"title":"No Kidding, Snerdley: It’s Safe To Say That Fox News Is ‘In The Christie Camp’","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/10\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone has something to say about the revelation that Chris Christie's office was intimately involved in the closing of the George Washington Bridge despite their prior denials. This includes Rush Limbaugh who made what might be the understatement of the decade: \"The media, with the exception of Fox, which is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ailes\/Christie","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/ailes-christie.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11293,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=11293","url_meta":{"origin":20618,"position":2},"title":"So What’s The Big Story This Week On CNN And Fox News?","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/19\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Both CNN and Fox News have Sunday morning programs that analyze the media. On CNN it's Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter. On Fox News It's MediaBuzz with Howard Kurtz. 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There have been periods that looked promising for the competition, particularly the months between the Democratic National Convention and the presidential election in 2012. 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