mr. samson, general samson. again, i'm confident he had no knowledge of this, based on our conversations, and his review of his information. >> i don't know the exact words, but something along the lines of we're taking appropriate action against the new york side and samson is working with us on it. >> yeah, it was something -- yeah. i asked general samson about this. i think -- yeah, said something to that effect. i don't know what it was. he said he has absolutely no idea what wildstein is referring to. >> that's that, settled, he definitely didn't have anything to do with it. two things to mention here, there is one other mention of david samson in the subpoenaed documents that were dumped last week. it was in a chain of text messages submitted by david wildstein. the port authority official who arranged the shutdown after being told to set it in motion by chris christie's deputy chief of staff. other e-mails and text messages submitted to the committee from david wildstein were redacted or partially redacte

mr. samson named him to one of the most important positions in the christie administration. samson has spoken for the governor almost anybody who's named at the port authority by christie appreciate as anything they say with, well, on behalf of the governor or thanks to the governor and, well, he's the chairman. >> in terms of how he fits into this scandal, the contrast between the way he was so verbal. in the backup on easter sunday and the way he made no comment about the backup in ft. lee, that could be explained by him not knowing what was underway, why would he make a public comment about it? is he usually loathed to make public comments about things once they become political -- matters of political discussion zm does i not like to talk to reporters generally? >> he will talk to reporters in the port authority meetings. there used to be huddles at the back of the meeting room, and chairman samson was always a regular participant. then they moved those discussion into a conference room adjacent to the meeting room, he's not been one of the regular participants. that's ge

mr. samson. i know you're not familiar with the ins and outs. mr. samson has been with him for two years. it is with mr. sameson the governor said i have had a two-hour conversation with him and i am confident he has no knowledge of that. we have no indication one way or other. he'll be subpoenaed and he may be key. >> absolutely he may be key. he is the chair wright now -- one of the chairman at the port authority at new york and new jersey. the port authority of new york and new jersey control billion0s of dollars in contract. they control all the bridges, the airports in new jersey and new york. >> the most powerful nongovernmental agency in the nation. >> exactly. anyone gets into office, their friends, and allies, give them the assignment to the port authority. someone doesn't know anything and you're so close to the governor? nobody believes that. >> the port authority, site of the 9/11 -- >> exactly. people need to know the residents of new jersey need to know and the country needs to know exactly what happened and who gave the orders. anybody

mr. samson, general samson, i'm confident he had no knowledge of this. >> last week, chris christie issued a sweeping defense of david samson, one of several people implicated in the first batch of e-mails who has managed to escape the axe. david samson is a pillar of new jersey politics. >> the question of the hour is, is david samson at some point going to be subpoenaed by this committee and what am i hearing is there is an enormous amount of pressure not to have him subpoenaed. >> this guy has one of the thickest resumes in the state. 2012 article on his law firm's website called him the second most influential man in new jersey politics. he's worked under four governors, democrats and republicans. serving as general council to the new jersey turnpike authority to general attorney under jim mcgreevey. and he runs one of the most powerful law firms in the state. in fact his partner at the law firm was appointed the state's interim lawyer. he served as chris christie's campaign council. he went on to head up his transition team. when his inauguration day arr e arrived david samson did the

mr. samson, general samson. that he had no knowledge of this based upon our conversations. and his review of his information. >> so what you have right there is chris christie, the easily duped boss, chris christie the guy who anyone working for him can lie to, and he's fooled. or maybe, maybe you just have chris christie not telling the truth. maybe chris christie is just not telling the truth when he says i'm confident that david samson had no knowledge of this. even if we take christie at his word and he believes that david samson had no knowledge of the lane closures and even if we take david samson at his word that he had absolutely no prior knowledge of the lane closures, what we do know is that when david samson was told about it by the only truth teller in this story, who was trying to make things right, david samson's reaction was to threaten the truth teller. to say he's playing in traffic, "made a big mistake." chris christie fired his campaign manager last week based on just the tone of his e-mails,

mr. samson who had spoke about stepping down long before the uproar over the bridge, has again raised the subject according to government officials. samson denies the story but that is what the "new york times" is reporting. if he resigns that will raise more public speculation. >> also because in the e-mails that have been released already he is all over them. he is part of the crew of people who talked about this, who tried to squash it. and so if he steps down for whatever reason he still is going to have to answer questions from either reid schar hired and the new jersey state senate has their own committee they will form. >> and these are citizens and your constituents, congressman, that seem to be collateral damage for whatever the motivation was. that has to be more egregious to you than anything else. >> you know one of my concerns, al, was this ad campaign that the governor put forward where he was in the commercials for sandy and the aftermath of the storm. there is a serious question about whether or not, how they went about choosing the bidderer on this. one bid was higher and

mr. samson the chairman but he was nominated by chris christie forthat position. there is -- for that position. there is a very close tie there. when i attended these monthly board meetings, commissioner board meetings in october, november, december when all these commissioners were there including the six from new jersey trying to seek answers for this traffic chaos that was going on, you going to try convince me that none of these individuals, the six individuals from new jersey because we have 12 commissioners, six from jersey, six from new york, of the six new jersey commissione commissionerrers picked by chris christie, we have elected officials acquiring about what's going on? -- inquiring what was going on? this doesn't make sense to me. >> this is now a collaboration lawsuit. let's listen -- there's now aclass action lawsuit. >> let's listen to some of the people. >> it was frightening and caused craziness. i started to get very, very anxious, it escalated to a point where i had an actual accident. >> if he was really unaware of this i think that strains c

mr. samson does come in. when we start looking at the complex.rp dca commissioner working with wolff/samson. those are the pieces we need to put this together. >> i don't get that piece. i'm sorry. what are you -- who do you expect the rockefeller group to hire? bernie the attorney? >> he's the head of the port authority. you review for ethics. >> to be clear, we reached out to the rockefeller group for comment, and their statement was that we have no knowledge or any information pertaining to this allegation. if it turns out to be true, it would be deplorable and we have not reported anything that suggests the rockefeller group itself was engaged in any wrongdoing. it's the connection that's been drawn has been that the rockefeller group is represented by the law firm of david samson who is christie's appointee, is christie's confidant, and the allegation from the mayor of hoboken is that it's two top level christie administration officials saying fast track that proposal. is that something you want your committee look iing into? >> well, he is

mr. samson, maybe is someone the governor cares about and cares about his project, because he would like to keep his good will. and same with lori grifa, who is also with that firm who will represent this project. and all of the sudden the lieutenant governor is said to have come in and said the boss wants this project approved or you're dead meat, basically. does it all fit together or not for a reporter? >> it's a two-way street. he is loyal to the people around him, and they're loyal to him too. so it doesn't surprise me that he is loyal to people. if you take a look at the chris christie book that i wrote, you'll find out that he has friends going all the way back to grade school. he has kept in very close touch with. >> and employed. >> employed. >> and kept employed. anyway, hoboken mayor dawn zimmer said the governor was holding sandy funds hostage on this weekend's "up with steve kornacki." let's listen to her report. >> the bottom line, it's not fair for the governor to hold sandy funds hostage for the city of hoboken because he wants me to give back to one private developer. an

mr. samson is the chairman of the port authority, who according to port authority e-mails already revealed seemed more intent at hiding what happened when the christie administration created a traffic jam at the george washington bridge than he was in explaining to the public how that traffic jam could possibly have happened. in mayor zimmer's story governor christie is so intent at helping david samson's client that he is willing to deny hurricane relief money to hoboken in order to get his way and his messenger is the lieutenant governor, who today said this. >> mayor zimmer's version of our conversation in may of 2013 is not only false but is illogical and does not withstand scrutiny when all of the facts are examined. the suggestion that anyone would hold back sandy relief funds for any reason is wholly and completely false. i am very surprised by the mayor's allegations, and i deny wholeheartedly those allegations. >> mayor zimmer said she met with federal prosecutors for over two hours on sunday and turned over her diary, which contains this entry from may 13th, 2013. "at the end of

mr. samson is so close to the governor and now we have three separate allegations here about him using -- using his influence to help clients is something that will eat away at governor -- another foundation of governor christie's strength. and that is as alex talked about, bipartisanship, working across the aisle. here we have more and more looking like that the governor is somebody who isn't all that he seems. and so now you have bridgegate. you've got mayor zimmer's allegations. you now have this with the path station. it's starting to look like a pattern for lack of a better description, a pattern of behavior on the part of governor christie and his friends, his administration that like you say will turn off suburban voters, turn off independent voters who want a chief executive who makes decisions based on the merits rather than based on cronyism. >> let's talk about this core of trust that seems to be something christie talks about. this core of trust that he felt was broken. it clearly angered, it angered david samson that anybody on the new york side of the bridge would say what's

mr. samson, general samson, and i am confident that he had no knowledge of this based on our conversation and his review of his information's all as he said yesterday he is angered by this and upset about it and he is going to cooperate with the investigation that is ongoing and discussion at the port authority about what can be done in the future t stop such conduct. >> you mentioned earlier the question you are asking, are you also asking the question, how did i conduct myself beginning with lending folks and stuff like this, not a criticism but the decisions that were made were closer through your administration or campaign that allows you to think it is co-pay against these. >> i know who i am. i am not that person. it is easy for people to be characterized in public life based upon their personality. i have a very direct blunt personality and i understand why some people would characterize that especially people don't like you as bullying but it is not that and i know that about myself. i am more focused on why the truth wasn't told to me. >> in politics that person there, also -- >>

mr. samson is a former state attorney general under governor mcgreevey at the start of mcgreevey's term in 2002 and '3. david samson was the counsel, the governor's first election campaign, was the chairman of his transition committee when he was transitioning into office. so of those four, he's closest with samson. he went to high school with david wildstein. they weren't in the same class, and i know it appeared they were necessarily close, but part of what, i guess, part of wildstein's interesting connection to this whole thing is that he had been anonymously the editor of a political web site here in new jersey for years. he ran under a pen name, ran columns. a lot of the sort of stories of the things that christie was accomplishing as u.s. attorney and his focus on weeding out political corruption got a lot of attention and publicity through the web site. so there's a sort of connection, i suppose you could say, between wildstein and christie's operation not from the time that he was governor, but going back further. baroni was an ally of christies -- pardon me, beg your pardon -- thr

samson as a not. on the advice of counsel i assert my right to remain silent. and that also refers to a meeting with the governor of the same day. mr chairman the advice of counsel i assert my right to remain silent now here's a clip of bobby kennedy questioning lewis fronto during the mcclellan hearings check the. very. very. very hard. and the audio on that for some reason was really screwed up but is dangerous in politics. yes the starting to really resemble you know the old mafia. style i think what have i think what you're what you're seeing here is is a character that his background is one of a u.s. attorney and he was always the one pushing people around and all of a sudden he understands you don't push people around without there being some ramifications listen here if you really honestly look at this story his position is i didn't know now this was this this wildstein fellow this david wildstein is somebody that he has grown up with he's around david wildstein all the time he has drinks with wildstein they vacation together they're very very close and for anybody to assume that there hasn't been some discussion about what