on top of this mastro's team also utilized the new jersey open public records act to request documents from officials in hoboken and ft. lee detailing interactions with members of the media. these tactics fed suspicions that mastro's team might have something else in mind besides just getting to the bottom of the stories. >> i think what their message is, they're trying to sort of threaten people. not explicitly but saying, you know, we're going to go back after you if you come back after us. >> as we thought about all of this this week, we were struck by something, why hasn't christie's legal team been this publicly aggressive in seeking information of those accused by mayor zimmer or implicated in the lane shutdowns in ft. lee? so we sent an e-mail to randy

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. attorney's office. so the response from zimmer's lawyer was swift and simple. quote, we question whether it is appropriate for the governor 80s office in essence to be investigating itself when an investigation of the same subject matter is being conducted by the u.s. attorney's office. mastro sent similar letter

randy mastro is conducting this review.wed according to the "bergen record" when you look at the people on christie's staff who presumably he'll be interviewing, they are all represented by his firm. to me, it raises the basic question, if he's investigating this and trying to get to the bottom of this and turns up anything suspicious about any of these people, how does he then turn around and be their lawyer, too? how can you wear both of those hats? >> well, that's exactly right. so it's not unusual early in an investigation for one lawyer to represent several employees of an organization. here's why it's a problem in this case. we've seen that governor christie's strategy is to blame his subordinates. he says the buck stops with bridget kelly or the buck stops with david wildstein or the buck stops with that guy who wrote the memo last week who talked about david wildstein in high school not being the most popular kid. so it's one thing to have a lawyer represent the coach and the team if everybody is actually on the sam

yesterday mastro and team requested records of the ft. lee mayor's office.rk sokolich and his staff. they asked for documents sokolich and his staff provided to the media. christie's team also sought zimmer's correspondence with "the new york times" and today we learned they want to interview sokolich as well. look at this, this "bergen record" chart shows mastro, himself, is representing many christie administration figures who are supposed to be the subjects of the internal review. >> i think what their message is is, you know, they're trying to sort of threaten people, and, you know, not explicitly, but saying, you know, we're going to go back after you if you come after us. >> joining me now is paul butler, law professor at georgetown university law center. he's a former federal prosecutor with the u.s. justice department where he specialized in public corruption. paul, thanks for joining us. so let's start with this. this caught me by surprise when i saw the news last night that christie's team, it's not just that they wanted to interview dawn zimmer, t

mastro.ascinating news tonight in this new jersey story, specifically about what governor christie's office thinks is an internal review that suddenly does not look very internal. yesterday, sean boburg at "the bergen record" governor christie's lawyers wrote to dawn zimmer concerning that mayor's allegation that christie administration officials threatened to withhold aid money for sandy relief unless she supported a private development in hoboken. that project has ties to the man governor christie appointed to be chairman of the port authority. asking for documents from mayor zimmer, asking for an interview with her. look at the quote from the letter. the governor's office takes the allegations recently made by hoboken mayor zimmer very seriously. for that reason, we assembled a team here that includes five former prosecutors and are conducting a thorough review of the facts pertinent to mayor zimmer's allegations. then they request, quote, complete unredacted documents from the mayor's off

>> packaged local meat is pulled, with a recall for nearly nine,000 pounds of meat soldier under "mastro." not fully inspected. there is the remote possibility of adverse consequences including several kinds of ham. you can return them for a refund. we have full details of the recall on our website at abc7news.com. >>> a study suggests the spread of pneumonia at hospitals could be reduced by making sure that the patients carefully brush their teeth. it allows the bacteria to link we, grow, and spread when they breath. the germs develop and are passed on in hours. to stop the spread, the researchers implemented an oral care program at a pair of hospitals and it reduced the express of pneumonia by a third. >> bart service is back on track this morning after a frightening accident. the concerns some commuters have following a rush hour derailment. >> a mangled mess after two cars collided in the north bay and what bliss are saying led to the deadly accident. >> a vote today that could leave thousands of festival goers in san francisco more ♪ [ birds chirping, twinkling noises ] you're alway

. >>> does the name randy mastro mean anything to you?e he tried to destroy a progressive political party in new york. those stories are coming up. [poof!] [beep] [clicks mouse] nice office. how you doing? good. automatic discounts the moment you sign up. >>> news out of new jersey today that is weird, frankly. given the context out of new jersey that we've been talking about for weeks now. ft. lee has turned over 122 pages of public records related to bridge gate for an attorney for chris christie. the mayor of ft. lee is set to interview christie's lawyers. why is this weird? because for weeks now, what's been happening, different entities have been issuing subpoenas in their investigation of the governor's office to get to the bottom of the bridge gate scandal, now the governor is conducting his own investigation. he's requesting a key witness through the state's open record law. these laws exist so that people can find things about their government. here we have the state government using its laws to find out things about its people.

. >> he has hired randy mastro, and we know very little about what is going on.e was hired to do an internal investigation at the governor's office. but what we have seen is he is seeking e-mails between the new york times and hoboken officials about the story there. we know he has sought to interview dawn zimmer, the mayor of hoboken and sought to find out what kind of documents she is turning over. what we know publicly about this investigation is they're looking at other people who have made accusations against the governor and trying to suss out what they have. >> are they trying to find out who leaked? >> i don't know about that. i mean, they may be trying to figure out in those e-mails between "the new york times" and the hoboken administration who, you know -- obviously, what kind of communications were going on. i don't know the answer to that. >> what is mayor zimmer's feeling about being told she wants to -- the lawyers, these big-time lawyers for the governor want to talk to her? is her reaction they want to strong arm her, they want to intimidate her?

. >>> does the name randy mastro mean anything to you?he time he tried to destroy a progressive political party in new york. those stories are coming up. aflac. ♪ aflac, aflac, aflac! ♪ [ both sigh ] ♪ ugh! ♪ you told me he was good, dude. yeah he stinks at golf. but he was great at getting my claim paid fast. how fast? mine got paid in 4 days. wow. that's awesome. is that legal? big fat no. [ male announcer ] find out how fast aflac can pay you at aflac.com. >>> news out of new jersey today that is weird, frankly. given the context out of new jersey that we've been talking about for weeks now. ft. lee has turned over 122 pages of public records related to bridge gate for an attorney for chris christie. the mayor of ft. lee is set to interview christie's lawyers. why is this weird? because for weeks now, what's been happening, different entities have been issuing subpoenas in their investigation of the governor's office to get to the bottom of the bridge gate scandal, now the governor is conducting his own investigation. he's requesting a

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