mast mastro's report. under the heading, "an independent eyewitness contradicts mayor zimmer's account." specifically dougherty was present when zimmer had a conversation in may of 2013 with a member of christie's cabinet. that's a man named richard constable who runs the department of community affairs. occasion was a televised town hall at monmouth. zimmer alleges before the program began, she had a conversation which constable suggested to her that hoboken would receive the sandy funds she was seeking if she approved that big development project. project that was proposed by something known as the rockefeller group. zimmer shared with us and then with federal prosecutors a contemporaneous diary entry that describes what she says happened. "we are miked up with other panelists all around us and probably the sound team is listening and he says, i hear you against the rockefeller project. i reply, i am not against the rockefeller project. in fact, i want more commercial development in hoboken. oh, really?

was he told by randy mastro and mastro's associates this is how it went down? which is coaching a witness. he's been offered as a defense witness. this isn't a -- >> to make that point, yes, he was -- we called constable, cabinet secretary clinton -- clinton? excuse me. christie's office. said, do you want to come on? said, no. they basically helped arrange us to get in touch with matt doherty. >> that's right. he offered up this independent democrat. he doesn't want to call dawn zimmer a liar. >> right. >> and the fact of the -- you know, he couldn't have heard. if he isn't sitting between them, he couldn't have heard -- it isn't possible that he could have -- that he could rule out anything -- >> everything he says, i don't believe she's fabricating anything. >> right. >> so if he's as confident as he says, they may have been whispering but they weren't. he's pretty confident. >> he'd like to have it both ways. what you saw in the interview is a guy trying hard to walk this line where he supports what's in the report, reports dawn zimmer, reports chris christ

this key witness in the mastro report. the christie administration telling us he doesn't think dawn zimmer is lying about her conversation with richard constable, but also that nothing like she says was said was actually said. now we have learned more information that only raises more doubt about mastro's report and how doherty was used in it. mastro released memos outlining the 75 interviews they used in their report. a few things jumped out at us. ralph larossa, who runs the largest new jersey gas and electric utility company, he was also on stage at mammoth university that night. that's him sitting behind dawn zimmer. it turns out he was interviewed by christie's lawyers as well. quoting from the memo, larossa responded he did not hear the alleged conversation between mayor zimmer and constable. and then this interview from patrick murray, political scientist and polling expert. he was say thing on stage, too, sitting right there on the other side of constable. he was as close to the conversation as dohe trshrty. so tha

his administration's lawyer, randy mastro says we can't handle the truth.l, that charge, sir, can go both ways. a couple of facts that predate the governor's legal team's report remain important here. one, these people involved in the bridge closures since september are christie people. they appear to represent the kind of people he feels comfortable with. they were at the time of this travesty, after all, his governmental agents there to carry out his political purposes. what does this say about him to be out there now calling these people of his stupid? dishonest. whatever. second, there is the declaration by mayor zimmer of hoboken she was confronted by the lieutenant governor armed with an ultimatum from the governor that if the mayor didn't play ball on a waterfront development, she would be aced out of money for flood assistance. the master report, itself, contains similar evidence of tough guy behavior. campaign manager bill stepien's demand that mayor zimmer get with the program or be dumped out of the way. press secretary michael duniak's text mess

mastro, and do you think you're going to get those documents?ertainly hope we will, but i was disappointed by the response. the governor started this whole process when this issue first became known, that he was going to cooperate fully with all of the investigations. i think cooperating fully means turning over the material that the internal investigation developed and used during their preparation of this report. to have anything short of that means the governor's backing away from his commitment to fully cooperate. >> are there particular sort of dark spots in the record that were either highlighted by this report or alluded to by this report that you're focusing on, that you'd really like to -- if you had to prioritize what you'd like to get that you found out exists from this report, are there specific things? >> well, i know what is not in this report, and that is any substantive interview with bridget kelly or bill stepien or david samson or bill baroni or mr. wildstein. and these are the key actors in this entire episode. and so how you

you know, so it's a lot bigger than randy mastro, the lawyer associated with associates of christie,'s really the point here. so the contribution doesn't look good, but the real problem with this report is that it was done by christie's lawyer. and it is in no sense an objective report, and, in fact, in doing the report, mastro and the gibson dunn investigators, didn't talk to any of the principles involved in the lane closings in the bridge because they wouldn't talk to them. so on the basis of no information, they declared christie innocent. that is really the scandal with the report. >> essentially because he said so and was very emotional when he said so. let's go back to you, john, the report isn't scoring points with new jersey voters either. only 36% in the latest polling think the report is legitimate. 56% think it's a whitewash. what are the odds even let's say christie escapes any legal action, that primary states in states like iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, will actually give christie a pass when his own residents in new jersey do not believe this report? >> well, j

, mastro came out and said the governor has done absolutely nothing wrong?e. i call that the "so-called investigation." that was done, the office of the governor. we are expecting by tomorrow, the, the first of -- many documents that we have asked for. mr. mastro never published the list of 70 people that he apparently claims to have interviewed. there are no transcripts of his interviews. but there are notes, memoranda notes of those interviews. and we are as a committee, looking for those. and we are also examining the various alternatives that we have -- based upon the judge's ruling that came out yesterday. >> so, could i just stop you. the transcripts issue. that was what interested me right from the start of the, that emergency of the investigation. i said on day one. show me the transcripts of your taped interviews. assuming that if these are real interviews, you tape them, and you have transcripts. you have both. no transcripts does that mean there are no tapes. and we have nothing but handwritten notes. by people who are in the room? >> as far as i

we need to know what randy mastro knows in preparing this report.to know what the governor said as part of his interview with randy mastro. that may involve having the governor come before our committee. >> new jersey assemblyman john wisniewski, thank you very much for keeping us up to speed. nice to see you. >> good to see you, rachel. >> all right. we'll be right back. transferred money from his before larry instantly bank of america savings account to his merrill edge retirement account. before he opened his first hot chocolate stand calling winter an "underserved season". and before he quit his friend's leaf-raking business for "not offering a 401k." larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement. that's why when the time came he counted on merrill edge to streamline his investing and help him plan for the road ahead. that's the power of streamlined connections. that's merrill edge and bank of america. add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get $100 off for every year of safe driving. we put members first. join the nation

i mean, it could parallel what mastro find but we just don't know yet. the u.s. attorney, paul fishman, is is in the process of looking at that. >> paul fishman, i think i referred to him as patrick fishman before. thank you for the correction, mary. hunter, the ryan lizza piece today is one of a string of stories that have traced the roots of chris christie's political career. you've done reporting on this and talked about his behavior and aks in high school forward and what emerges from myriad sources, from the atlantic to your publication to the new yorker is a man who has wielded the cudgel of power unsparingly. and also does not have aai lee janss that last beyond their political expiration date. i thought one of the most damning apartments of ryan's story out today is former governor tom kean in in ways responsible for christie's emergence on the national political scene. kriszie visited him as a high schooler and was a longtime ally. ultimately, christie attempted to engineer a coup against his son for political expedience which lost him unsurprisingly the

. >> well, the documents that we have been requesting from randy mastro's office did arrive today in time. they've all been down loaded, and all they do is add to the fact that this report is not worth the paper it's written on. they didn't even interview one person in the port authority. apparently they didn't really want to find out what went on here. they didn't even call the executive director, pat foye, the man who reversed the infamous lane closings on the george washington bridge. so this report is 430-some-odd pages of more whitewash, is the kindest way -- >> i looked at that list. i didn't recognize hardly any of those 75 names. who are the people they did interview for the randy mastro report. >> staffers in the governor's office, second and third level staffers. people who talked to people. >> loyalists. >> it isn't even good -- it isn't even a good cover-up in my humble opinion. i' been saying that about this from the very beginning. how about asking somebody in the port authority about the so-called traffic study? the thing that the governor insisted right up through the

. >>> you've heard plenty by now about the mastro report.t was the report released a few weeks ago by randy mastro. he's the lawyer whose firm was chosen by the office of chris christie to conduct an internal investigation into his administration. it's a report that is trying to exonerate the governor. it's a report paid for by new jersey taxpayers and did not include interviews with the principle players in the scandal swirling around the christie administration, which probably helps with the reaction the report is generating from the media. a majority of new jersey voters see the master report as a whitewash, and not the definitive independent exoneration that christie is trumpeting it as. they were also skeptical of the democratic lawmakers who were investigating the scandal. but they really don't seem to trust the internal investigation of the christie administration. partly because it was led by an attorney that the christie administration hired and also that they did not make any recordings or transcripts public. they tell us it's cust

and the problem they have, and you can see this in the way that randy mastro tried to deal with it at the press conference, dawn zimmer made a diary. dawn zimmer may have not talked about it until january, but she has a diary that was made almost near contemporaneous that includes an account of this. and the danger for them is that this week, i think tomorrow, the hoboken city, the local government authority in hoboken is going to release one of the town attorneys to speak to the u.s. attorney and i believe the assemblyman's committee as well. and the thinking is at some point mayor zimmer had a discussion with this attorney immediately after the encounter with the lieutenant governor of new jersey. and she told him about what happened. and now he is going to be free to talk about that in a way that he hasn't before. the problem for the administration here is that dawn zimmer's already gone and talked to the u.s. attorney. if she told the u.s. attorney the story that she has told everybody else, then either she is telling the truth or she has perjured herself. and that puts the admini

randy mastro, and gibson dunn decided not to put that into the report.portant is, anything could be useful to the state. >> and my key question, what did the governor say? he was not under oath, but he was vulnerable to a charge of not telling the truth. anything that might be coming out because of the testimony coming from wildstein, bridget kelly? against the guy we're looking at, the guy at the heart of this thing? >> well, they want bridget kelly to come forward. and the committee did meet today, and decided not to issue subpoenas today. they're going to give dunn until the end of the week. >> and who's paying for the transcripts? does the state own them? >> well, they said, if they don't get it by the end of the week, they're going to subpoena the governor's office or the law firm. >> well, it seems to me, you have to pay for these transcripts. the state of new jersey, maybe they didn't pay for them. maybe they took the report from randy mastro. >> if they're being paid, were hired by the christie administration, they're being paid for by the state

mastro has never said they have transcripts of these things. there is no attorney-client privilege ledge. >> there is no transcript, audio or anything. >> thank you both for joining me. >> hillary clinton talks about running for president. mike huckabee may be creating the perfect opening for jeb bush. the republicans could use a sane candidate. and the congressman who yesterday said he wanted an fbi investigation about who leaked that security video of him in a romantic embrace with the married woman who is not married to him has now told the fbi never mind. and later, the people who are supposed to protect the life of the president of the united states are literally falling down drunk on the job. and worse. know what the experts at your ford dealer think? they think about tires. and what they've been through lately. polar vortexes, road construction, and gaping potholes. so with all that behind you, you might want to make sure you're safe and in control. ford technicians are ready to find the right tires for your vehicle. get up to $120 in ma

which is to say the randy mastro transcripts are now being demanded by john wisniewski who is chairingnvestigation. he has expressed doubt that's those transcripts even exist i wonder what you think about the taxpayer investigation that may have been an investigation really truly in name only. >> partly an effort by the democrats and new jersey to sort of kick the tires on this investigation that mastro did. if there is stuff in those transcripts that wasn't contained in their formal public report, again, it cast them in a bad light. it undermines the conclusions of that report. and as you say, if there were not any trans krimts, if there is nothing there it raises a further question. what were they doing all those weeks for all that money. >> that's a huge part of it. wisniewski says there it's no hard evidence, they don't get transcripts, that means this report is -- sorry, the tax-funded christie report is based on nothing more than his mental impressions of what people said. that is a classic definition of hearsay. i think it hurts christie even more than it possibly could have hem

mastro has never said they have transcripts of these things. there is no attorney-client privilege ledge. >> there is no transcript, audio or anything. if he is. >> thank you both for joining me. >> hillary clinton talks about running for president. mike huckaby may be creating the perfect opening for jeb bush. the republicans could use a sane candidate. and the congressman who yesterday said he wanted an fbi investigation about who leaked that security video of him in a romantic embrace with the married woman who is not married to him has now told the fbi never mind. and later, the people who are supposed to protect the life of the president of the united states are literally falling down drunk on the job. and worse. c'mon, you want heart? when your favorite food starts a fight, fight back fast, with tums. heartburn relief that neutralizes acid on contact. and goes to work in seconds. ♪ tum, tum tum tum... tums! the expedia app helps you save with mobile-exclusive deals download the expedia app text expedia to 75309 expedia, find yours (dad) j

and i've said this before, and i'll say it right to randy mastro's face.name on this report is an embarrassment to the legal profession. >> new jersey state senator loretta weinberg. that's going to be tonight's last word on the chris christie situation. thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> coming up, jimmy fallon and stephen colbert have a new favorite candidate for united states senate, and she's in tonight's rewrite. ♪ geico motorcycle. see how much you could save. man: i don't know...i forget. it last time? scott: hello, neighbors. man: hey, scott... perfect timing. scott: feeding your lawn need not be so difficult. get a load of this bad boy. man: sweet! scott: this snap spreader system from scotts makes caring for your lawn snapcrackin' simple, guaranteed. just take the handy, no-mess bag, then snap, lock and go. to see a demo of the snap spreader, go to scotts.com. feed your lawn. feed it! anncr: visit scotts.com/goyard for the chance to win a $25,000 backyard makeover. >>> on this day in history, march 31st, 1776, john adams

the fundamental question that's not answered today, not answered by the mastro report is why. report that bridgett kelly was emotionally distraught and decided because of that to close lanes. that doesn't wash, steve. >> in terms of talking with -- having communications with federal prosecutors, is there any communication that's taking place between you, between your council -- >> our council has been in contact and we've been making very sure that what we're doing has not interfered with or impeded or in any way gotten into the lanes of what the u.s. attorney is doing. we're very comfortable with and very confident that what we're doing has nom impact on the u.s. attorney's investigation. but we have a mission that's different than what they want do. they want to prosecute people potentially for violations of law. that's not our job. we want to find out how this could happen. there's a rush to judgment to say there's one e-mail from bridgett kelly, let's stop the show right here, blame it on her and move on. but there's more to it. >> i don't think it -- >> just to quickly po

and i've said this before, and i'll say it right to randy mastro's face.ting your name on this report is an embarrassment to the legal profession. >> new jersey state senator loretta weinberg. that's going to be tonight's last word on the chris christie situation. thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> coming up, jimmy fallon and stephen colbert have a new favorite candidate for united states senate, and she's in tonight's rewrite. life's an adventure when you're with her. and it always has been. but your erectile dysfunction - it could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe

including evidence of a new interview conducted by the christie administration's legal team after the mastro report was released. also word out of south korea at this hour that more bodies have been recovered from that passenger ferry which capsized with hundreds of people on board. confirmed death toll is now above 50 people. divers have finally been able to find a way

the panel had given randy mastro up today to turn over documents or face new subpoenas.got a reprieve. the co-chair issued a statement reading we're in set of the list of those interviewed for its report. and have agreed to give the law firm up noon until noon to monday. joining me now is senator wineburg. some news today. you have the list of those 70 names. i'm wondering if you can give us in hint as to who may be on it. but beyond that, how much cooperation are you expecting? >> first of all, i call it the so-called invest gaer to report. we received a list today apparently 2actually of 75 name. au and let me correct something. there are no transcripts or recordings of any of their interviews. the only thing they have to turn offic over to us is their notes of the so-called interviews. so we have given them until noon on monday to turn those notes over to us. but what they seem to be is the mast on ro interpretation. that puts another layer of disbelief around this report. i'm curious about how this put in this whole alleged personal relationship between two of the ma

. >> the mastro report really leads a road map to the people who say they talked to the governor in earlyr about what they knew and not only that, about what other people knew. and so you have a memo about an interview in which it's related that mike duhaims interviewed the governor about wildstein's statement that he and bill stepien knew about the lane closures. yet hours after that, the governor came out and said no one in my administration knew anything about this. those two things don't match. and they both can't be accurate. so our job is to find out exactly who knew what when. i want to make it clear. this is about fixing the problem at the port authority. and fixing the abuse of power. we're following it wherever it may lead. >> thank you both for being here. >> up next, a perfect example about how not to teach people about train safety. this is "hardball." the place for politics. [ thunder crashes ] [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending

this is from christina renna's -- the memo given by randy mastro that was disclosed yesterday. one of the directors of the intergovernmental affairs in the christie administration. it's one of the most interesting memos in the entire stack. the portrait we get is there's a sort of culture of retribution. they would be mad at mayors and really wouldn't know why. bridget kelly often wouldn't tell her why. staffers knew enough not to ask questions beyond what information was given to them. they wrote a lot of stuff down. it wasn't just that they had a list of people to talk to in the court. they also thought there was a list available of people whose calls they shouldn't take. >> it was so patterned here. i want to go to kendall, the line you just raised here, brian, can we get a list of hands-off mayors? in other words, the ones being punished. no, we can't get it. it would just keep changing daily anyway. the frivolousness in which they talk about they're punishing the office. this guy is off-base today, radio silence for that guy, he's on the list there, right with phillip, the

we began to see some of this in the report issued last month by randy mastro, whose law if i were was hired by the governor's office to do an internal review of the governor. yesterday, that law firm released notes from 75 interviews they did for that internal report on the governor's office. those notes have more and in some ways, more unsettling detail that we didn't know before. for example, they interviewed a sandy regional director in the governor's office. this person served as a conduit between mayors and municipalities in the office of the governor, involving issues regarding to hurricane sandy, recovery from hurricane sandy. that staffer, in charge of that issue, recalled, according to these notes, that on issues related to hurricane sandy, bridge bridget kelly needed to check with the chris christie re-election campaign, quote, before approving certain things. he says he was told, for instance, not to bend over backwards to help hoboken mayor don zimmer, who also was not endorsing chris christie for re-election. that official says he treated the hoboken mayor just the same,

according to randy mastro's report, christie had no specific recollections of conversations with baroni wildstein, especially on the 11th when he said he talked to chris christie about bridgegate. but he remembers other things, including this, which defies explanation. before the 9/11 memorial event began, the governor recalled that mrs. christie asked to use a bathroom and david wildstein directed her to a large white port authority trailer. she went into the van and then exited saying that there was no bathroom in the trailer. a female port authority police department officer who was possibly baroni's driver, then took mrs. christie to the bathroom. otherwise, mrs. christie was with him for the entire event. how is it that you do remember about your wife being guided to the wrong ladies' room? >> i think the details on where mrs. christie went to the restroom is really an important thing. there were probably a thousand dollars of legal fees. >> just for that detail. >> just for that detail. this report is so weird. you conduct an investigation like this, where you do all of these inte

as we reported a lot over the past weeks, randy mastro conducted an investigation into the bridge scandalt taxpayer expense and issued a report that surprise, exonerated chris christie. well, new jerseyans aren't buying it. a quinnipiac poll asked people in that state whether the investigation was legitimate or a white wash. 56%, an unambiguous majority, say it was a white wash. that's in jersey. just 36% thought the report was a legitimate investigation. governor christie may have underestimated his own constituents, you might say they are too smart. joining us right now, chris cillizza and anna palmer, senior washington correspondent for politico. thank you, two. it's always interesting to see an entire state as a focus group, chris, and to watch and think how's he reacting. he's reacting the way most people would, it seems to me, this guy went out and paid $600,000 of state money to investigate at least his side of the story, and they presented his side of the story. and i think the voters are now saying when they are polled about it say, well, that's a white wash. i'm not sure it's a

the governor came forward with his investigation, some of the notes from that, from andy mastro, his lawyer, were turned over. what is your judgment of that independent, quote/unquote, that the governor had of himself? >> it's not truly an independent investigation. this is an attorney that's been hired to represent the governor's office. >> am i correct, by the taxpayers' of new jersey? >> by the taxpayers of the state of new jersey. so it's really questionable what the true mission here was. was the mission here to defend the governor's office or was the mission here to get at the truth at any price? we don't really know. but what we do know is the interview notes that we've been given really forces us to accept whoever wrote it version of what happened. we don't know exactly what was said. we take somebody else's synthesis of that. and that's troubling. >> you have been enmeshed in a legal battle to compel document production from two of the people that are at the center of this, bridget anne kelly, of course, who wrote the infamous "time for traffic problems in ft. lee," if there

we obviously endured the randy mastro investigation. it spent a lot of time calling david wildstein crazy and brid jell kelly emotional, but it did not seem to actually convince anybody that needed to be convincing that the governor had nothing to do with this and this was all the plot of two crazy aides. it's going to be interesting to see who else goes there. i would think they would be very interested in talking to blidget kelly and granting her immunity as well. we haven't seen that yet. >> what would prosecutors want to extract out of wildstein. what do you think are the things that he would need to cooperate and give in order for the prosecutors to give them a feeling they've got something for this immunity? >> well, reverend, we can reset the time machine and go back to watergate. that sound bite of what the president knew and when he knew it. ultimately, these prosecutors are going to want to know what mr. wildstein can tell them, if anything, about what governor christie knew and when he knew it. whether it was in connection wi

let's leave it at that, he's not really being straightforward because that's his lawyer we played, mastro, who was attacking wildstein and they put out this report christie ordered attacking wildstein, so it's not just leaving it at that. >> the wording on the report i thought was curious because it said that he obviously wanted to hurt this mayor and then it goes on to say but we have no idea why. i mean what good is that report? i mean the report is not worth the paper it's written on, actually. and then you have christie saying, well, gosh, let's just say he shouldn't be there and let's leave it at that. how the heck did he get there? did he change his spots during the years that he's been at the port authority? i mean why all of a sudden is he a bad guy now? >> you'd think they'd want to put forward if he was doing this for someone other than christie, they might have come up with a theory of who else that would be. >> you'd think that, wouldn't you. yeah. this is just a mystery. the more we look at it, the stranger and the more weird that it gets. and then there are those people that