Three months into the Bridgegate scandal, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
was asked about it for the first time. “I don’t know anything more than
basically what has been in the newspaper, because it was basically a New
Jersey issue,” Cuomo said. He was talking about a disruptive traffic
jam that had engulfed the bi-state agency he runs with New Jersey Gov.
Chris Christie.
But newly-released records stemming from a WNYC freedom of
information request show Cuomo and his top aides responding instantly
and far more intensely to the abrupt lane closures on the George
Washington Bridge than had previously been known.
The records show Cuomo's right-hand man immediately applauding the
reversal of the lane closures on the world's busiest bridge, frequent
consultations on communications strategy between Albany and top New York
appointees at the Port Authority, and Cuomo himself getting on the
phone to discuss the response as the scandal got hotter.
"It was exactly what should be done," a Cuomo spokesman said about
the newly-released details of the administration's response. The
spokesman added that the governor's office "was asking the agency to
brief them on the facts."
To be sure, there’s nothing particularly startling about a governor
and his top aides frequently consulting with the leaders of a
multi-billion dollar authority about a burgeoning scandal.
But the record of email and phone traffic on the New York side paints
a different picture from what the two governors have led the public to
believe about high-level response to the lane closures.
And it contrasts sharply with Christie's claim that he was unaware and uninterested.
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