apparently referencing the form he attorney general david samson. here's another one between bill barrone and david wildstein. this is right after bill gave his false testimony to the legislate you are with that testimony about a traffic study. right after that we get this new line today that we didn't used to have. kevin o'toole did put out a statement right after the testimony that backed whaum mr. barone said after that. senator o'toole maybe ironically or maybe just weirdly happens to also be the state senator who the republicans assigned to be on the legislative committee investigating bridge gate even though he himself is tangentially involve in the scandal. we had heard there was a reference but now we can see it. even though he is on the committee, the co-chairs of the legislative committee investigating this issue say that senator o'toole may actually face questioning on this issue. which would probably mean that he would have to get up off the dais and sit in the witness chair and then come back to the dais later. or maybe i just talked lik

when david samson is not being the chris christie appointed chairman of the port authority, he's one of the named partners of the wolf and samson. in 2010, wolf and samson, david samson's law firm were hired by an entity that operates a bunch of parking lots for new jersey commuters. they were hired for $650,000 in 2010. in 2011, they more than doubled the value of that contract, they were getting paid a million and a half dollars, by 2011, by the end of 2011, david samson's law firm is getting paid a million and a half dollars by the entity that owns these parking lots. their contract was for wolf and samson to advise this entity that has these parking lots on how they could maximize the profits that they made from all their parking lots. over the course of those two years, by the end of 2011, david samson's law firm had been paid $2 million. one of those parking lots is right here. you see the buses in the upper right hand corner, you see the lot with the regular cars. a couple people parked their cars in that parking lot every day. the land is owned by the port authority. the group

on inauguration day in 2010, samson was there. >> my name is david samson. over the past two weeks, served as governor-elect transition committee. >> he made him his top appointee. samson continued his work for his law firm and he and christie stayed close. when christie had a walk-through of the rnc in 2012, samson was there. when christie was campaigning last year, samson was there. when bridgegate broke, christie stood by his man. >> i sat and met for two hours yesterday with mr. samson. general samson. and i'm confident that he had no knowledge of this. >> two months after christie made those comments, the allegations of samson's conflicts of interests just keep rolling in. his firm represents the owner of the railroad construction company inc. they have won almost $16 million worth of contract work from the port authority since samson became the chairman of the port authority. some of those contracts samson voted on. mr. samson took public role in promoting and defending a del for the port authority to take over operations of the atlantic city airport. a

we've seen several conflicts come about david samson. a paz station in harrison. we' seen multiple examples. >> every breath samson takes at the port authority takes is a conflict of interest and christie knew that would be the case. he knew what his real job was. "up with steve kernacki." coming up, the republicans and ted cruz and the battle that never ends between them. and joy reid joins me to talk about the president's new initiative, my brother's keeper and the extraordinary comments the president made at the white house made today. and bill o'reilly will tell us why he doesn't want to be president. he really doesn't. tweet me your guesses about why bill o'reilly doesn't want to be president. [ car alarm chirps ] ♪ [ male announcer ] we don't just certify our pre-owned vehicles. we inspect, analyze, and recondition each one, until it's nothing short of a genuine certified pre-owned mercedes-benz for the next new owner. [ car alarm chirps ] hurry in to the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event. visit today for exceptional offers. ♪ there was a boy who

well, the samson in wolff samson is this samson, david samson. the chairman of the port authority. it also happens to own that piece of land where the parking lot sits. hmmm. in early 2012, mr. samson in his official role as chairman of the port authority decided he would cast a vote to change the way his agency leased that land going forward. he voted that they should stop charging the entity that operated the parking lot, should stop charging them $900,000 a year that they had been charging them and instead they should start charging them $1. $1 per year. do the math. david samson in private practice was being paid to help that entity. and then changed their rent to $1 a year. that laugh out loud story broke yesterday morning on the front page of the "bergen record" paper. now port authority conflict in interest emerges. this came the same day samson gave his first public apology for his agency's role in the bridgegate scandal in new jersey. if that was the end of it, that would still be an amazing story. toll payers lose $900,000 every year fro

and david samson basically we show some of the e-mails there, you know, samson is retaliating.t thought baroni has when he realizes, whoa, we might be into it here, david samson, the chairman of the port authority, christie's top ally, his fingerprints are all over this. >> samson, the former attorney general of new jersey under a democrat who has played both sides of the political parties in new jersey very well over the past -- >> nobody else has ever done that. >> thank you. >> i mean, come on. >> well, let's put it this way, he's gotten rich off of it. >> no one else has ever done that either. >> you keep shooting me down. >> i'm sorry. i'm sorry. >> but this is what i find interesting in this kind of like cone of silence that has developed since all of this has been breaking is that the chairman of the port authority who has refused to respond to loretta weinberg, the state senator who is now co-chair of the investigative committee, a refused to respond to her, refused to give her any kind of lip service whatsoever, all we have on him are, in essence, incriminating communi

. >> on the matter of david samson, specifically, you told "star-ledger" after reviewing some of thets you've received so far from david samson, you say he's intimately involved in the operations at the port authority. he's the chairman of the port authority. the "new york daily news" called for him to be fired. the executive director of the port authority today said that david samson in his opinion does not have the moral authority to stay on in -- >> i read that. >> -- his role as chairman. what did you mean when you described him as intimately involved in operations? why is that important? >> when we first looked at the documents that were made part of the committee's record when david wildstein testified, we saw some references where chairman samson sent an e-mail, essentially expressing his frustration, anger at pat foye, having talked about this issue of the lane closure. then there's another e-mail that says samson's going to help us retaliate. i think the documents that have come in subsequently shows an individual who's involved in the day-to-day details of the port authorit

i sent a copy of that letter to the governor and to the chair of the port authority, david samson. following that, having received no reply from any of the three aforementioned, on october 6th or 7th, i appeared at a subcommittee meeting chaired by commissioner schuber of the port authority, a committee which i thought was appropriately named for me to appear before about ethics and governance. and i outlined what we had learned and what we had learned i believe about what was printed in the newspaper about pat foye's e-mail. it was at that meeting that i believe i said something to the effect, if we don't get answers here, i am going to go back and ask for subpoena power from the senate. i then appeared at the november meeting of the port authority, pardon me, at the full meeting of the port authority in october, again in november, and again in december. all of those meetings were covered quite widely in the press, that i was there, that i was asking questions. on november 18th, backtrack a few weeks, i had a meeting with the governor's chief of staff, kevin o'dowd. it was a meeti

by this point today, now that we know what we know, i think he should say, david samson has been a loyaline, i have a lot of faith in him, but there's been so many conflicts of interest. leave the gwb scandal aside, which samson says he knew nothing about. he said that to me personally that he knew nothing about. he did not recuse himself from a vote for a use of a pass station in harrison, which is new -- near newark. he had a client that was going to benefit from a real estate deal. >> he still works for the law firm making huge amounts of money for the law firm. yeah, you get to do that in this job. have as many outside jobs as you want. >> that's wild. >> just for those conflicts, for somebody who was this no nonsense, going to turn trenton upside down kind of guy. he should say samson should step down. >> and let's go to the e-mail that sam son wrote when he cannot deny that he did not know about the bridge. and that's when patrick foye stopped what was going on at the bridge. and samson wrote an e-mail that said i just read it and confirms evidence of foye stirring up trouble. he e

there's david samson in his little apology note at that public hearing.e washington bridge to the actions of a few individuals. that list of individuals is expanding every day. it may very well include dr. samson himself, who is deeply entrenched in this whole story. but now we're finding out about chip michaels, this police officer who seems close to camp christie who was driving david wildstein around as an additional e-mail communication coming out about him. coming up with a better idea about how to make the traffic jam worse. to attribute this date as samson did to the actions of a few individuals. that's just patently false based on what we know on the record so far. >> that's right. and the plot continues to thicken every day. and the interesting thing is apart from mr. samson's kind of, i think lame explanation, there still is no counternarrative out there that the governor has put out, or the governor staff has put out. and it's very interesting what's going on with respect to the legislative committee going to court today to get the documents fo

role in the bridgegate scandal, tonight "the star ledger" published this editorial calling on david samson to resi resign. so far chris christie seems happy to keep him in the post. he says he's quite confident that david samson did nothing wrong, but the largest paper in new jersey tonight says he's got to go. stay tuned. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. >>> there is a new trial date for the jordan davis murder case and another juror is now talking about what happened in that jury room. >> the victim was a 17-year-old teenager that should have had his whole life in front of him. that's the victim. >> i believe prosecutors and the sheriff's association are in favor of the former laws. >> the former state attorney said she wuld retry the case. >> we do believe there should be a duty to retreat. >> he had no duty to retreat. >> it was part of closing argue mgts. it was part of the jury instructions. >> we opening wounds surrounding florida's stand your ground law. >> something that's become sort of a matter of confusion over this case. >> we do believe there should

and christie's top port authority appointee and close adviser, david samson.ps most crucially, the office of the governor, itself, and the governor's re-election campaign. those documents are due next monday. and they are just the subpoenas from the new jersey legislature. there are a whole host of other subpoenas now coming from the federal authorities. last week, u.s. attorney issued grand jury subpoenas to the governor's re-election campaign which is now being hit by both state and federal subpoenas and now is actually asking permission to use the remaining funds as well as raise additional money to pay the legal bills arising from its cooperation with the state and federal investigations. there is also a subpoena out to the state republican party. those documents are due next wednesday, and those are just from the u.s. attorney's office's investigation of the ft. lee matter. today, the u.s. attorney expanded their investigation subpoenaing the city of hoboken for documents related to mayor dawn zimmer's allegation. something tells me even after everything

he says he's quite confident that david samson did nothing wrong, but the largest paper in new jersey tonight says he's got to go. stay tuned. now it's time for "the last >>> good friday morning. right now on "first look," deal reached. breaking news this morning. an end to the ukraine crisis. we'll take you live to the region with details of the agreement to end the bloodshed. >>> tornadoes and storms. along with teaming rain, twisters loom over seven states. >>> olympic pride. the u.s. women on the wrong end of a miracle on ice. while the u.s. men prepare for their turn at the canadians. >>> plus, a "modern family" star inappropriately touched? >>> and a baby brought back to live. >>> thanks for joining us, everybody. i'm betty nguyen. at this very moment in kiev, a deal is expected to be signed in the ukraine. this as gunshots continue to ring out on the capital's central square. central kiev was a battlefield with dozens of antigovernment protestors being cut down from gunfire from heavily armed police. it was the bloodiest day in the country's post soviet history. they reported a

and i sent a letter to a port authority commissioner pat schubert and i copied the governor and david samson on that letter. i believe i expressed in that letter that this was a little bit more than a traffic jam, and that i was at a loss for words as to how to explain what took place here with no notification to local officials, et cetera. so i'm assuming that when the governor's office gets a copy of a letter on state senate stationary, signed by the majority leader of the state senate, somebody might have called it to his attention. but okay, i'll accept maybe he didn't see it. maybe nobody did bring it to him. so let's fast forward to october 1. when the executive director of the port authority patrick foye had reversed the lane closures, and an e-mail he wrote was leaked to the press in which he stated that this was done against every kind of ruling regulation in the port authority. he had reversed it. it put people in jeopardy and compromised safety and, in fact, he said in that e-mail laws might have been broken. both federal and state laws. well, let's say that the governor only got

outrage from the jersey operatives on the side of this being like we're pushing back, getting david samson. you guys reported this. is this report still stands, right? you stand by this reporting. >> we do. >> so you -- you reported out and you had evidence this was talked about in the conversation, you stand by that. it has been denied by christie and sort of denied or waved away by cuomo. >> yeah, we stand by it. and, but one thing i just want to add on what you're saying before about the power struggle and, you know, governor cuomo's role in the agency is new jersey's lost some big guns at the port authority now. lost david wildstein and lost bill baroni. they're in a much more weakened position going forward. going to be interesting how that effects future deals. there's a lot of things on the table. >> about to get rolled by the new york side on everything. do you suspect that we will see -- were you surprised by the "bergen record" reporting about the level of involvement apparently of the port authority police -- >> we always had that. there was always that document from mark sokoli

>> there is a line that david samson has when they're angry with pat foye is that the line they say is that he is playing in traffic. he is playing a dangerous game, playing in traffic. that's the line that the chairman of -- port authority chairman. >> you have to put these things together like we all do. it seems like everybody is in on this political intrigue. everybody know what's the game is about generally. we're going to put some kind of pressure on ft. lee. and the only one that doesn't see it is the boy scout here. >> right. >> patrick foye, who was appointed by governor cuomo. and, again, i go back to my favorite question. what happened on the phone call between governor christie and governor cuomo. >> yeah. >> when apparently, according to "wall street journal" report, reported later by "the times" that in fact it was a call from christie for help, right? >> right. maybe. >> get your guy off my punishment campaign. why is he interfering with this thing. >> the thing about pat foye is, though, yesterday there was a port authority board meeting. steve kornacki was there and as

and david samson who says he was calling in to help them retaliate when the port authority's chief threatened to shut down their scheme. then there is the second group we're looking at right now. the staffers being mentioned connected to the cover-up, the cover-up part of this thing. bill baroni who gave discredited testimony to lawmakers about the bogus traffic study that never existed. philip kwon, the port authority's general counsel, who spent five days apparently prepping or coaching baroni on what to say, making up this traffic study thing. bridget kelly, who said she was very happy with baroni's testimony, his performance, according to texts from wildstein. and then nicole grifo, who wildstein also mentions in texts. and mckenna who wildstein tells baroni you did great. melissa, this is fascinating, because this is a large web of people that were involved in coaching or saluting or praising baroni's cover-up claim it was all a traffic study. it's almost growing to be as large as the original number of people who were in on this cabal to punish the mayor of ft. lee. it's fascinating. an

hall with $5 million, hooked up his man john ashcroft with a $50 million gig and even the famous david samson got hooked up for $10 million. the department of justice said we never thought to make a rule against this because it's so obviously wrong but they had to because of this misconduct by a prosecutor. >> i found it very surprising this week, bert, when i read there was a rule specifically created because of the way that chris christie conducted business in new jersey. but when you look at what's happening next in this investigation and the fact that it's widening, it does suggest, you know, again this idea of a pattern of types of behavior. i feel like the story talks about his time as u.s. attorney but a pattern may be emerging in terms of how he conducts business as governor, as a political operative. >> i think that's exactly the point and i couldn't agree with paul more. it looks like the governor when he was u.s. attorney was using it to get ready for his gubernatorial run. that of course is objectionable. there's a stench out there and it reminds me when we used to drive on the ne

high-rise, outside of -- its firm that it hired as bond counsel was firm of port authority chairman david samson, representing the developer in the bond deal. people have to look at that, belleville and new brunswick. the folks in the room that our producers were shooting last night have to look at this and say, this is a rigged game. >> the people who were in galloway on tuesday night, there were 200 people there not all of them got the opportunity to be heard. i think there are lots and lots of residents very rightly saying, what is going on here? why is this process seemingly not fair? where is our federal government making sure the process is going the way it's supposed to be? >> where is the federal government is the big question. residents in new jersey, just go out and hire wolf & samson to represent you in these proceedings. heather haddon at the "wall street journal" and stacey bergen. >>> coming up, this guy again. >> do you like green eggs and ham? i do not like them, sam i am. >> turns out ted cruz doesn't like the senate minority leader much, either. extraordinary behind the scenes

christie gave a budget address, and pat foye came out earlier this week and said he didn't think david samsonad the moral authority to keep leading the port authority. so we have seen some cracks from albany on this that we hadn't seen before. but getting back to your original point, it's interesting to see them joking about this. and for one reason is usually when people -- and this is just from historical perspective, when people joke about an operation that they're running or that has been run, usually they do it after the fact, after they have already gotten away with something here. but here they're making this remark in the context of still being in the planning stages for what they're about to pull in ft. lee a few weeks later. this comment about causing the rabbi some problems, that's only six days after the initial order is given from bridget kelly, time for some traffic problems in ft. lee, right. that's given on a tuesday, the day of cory booker's tuesday. this is being sent on the following monday. this gives us some insight into what they're really thinking here. and it's despera

sandy aid to a project represented by the law firm of one of christie's top political allies, david samson. and that another christie cabinet official, richard constable, head of the department of community affairs, had intimated a similar quid pro quo. now true to his word christie did hire outside counsel, randy mastro from gibson dunn. this is pricey representation. mastro was charging $650 an hour for his services. and mastro has been very public in conducting this internal investigation for 0 christie. at least some of the time. this is the letter that he sent to mayor zimmer's lawyer on february 4. in it mastro states that the governor's office takes zimmer's allegations, quote, very seriously and requests a meeting to further our mandate from the governor's office to facilitate cooperation with the u.s. attorney's investigation and complete an internal review. in the letter mastro goes on to request a copy of the diary zimmer shared. and for other records that zimmer shared on our show. keep in mind, after appearing on our show zimmer turned over those and other documents to the u.s