I absolutely hate the phrase “it doesn’t pass the smell test,” so you know something smells bad if I say: this doesn’t pass the smell test.
Nine days before a team of its top lawyers made public a report clearing Governor Christie in the George Washington Bridge scandal, the law firm donated $10,000 to the Republican Governors Association, a group he heads.
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher made its donation March 18.
If they were wise they would not have made any donation at all, and it stands to reason they’d balk given their payday from the governor’s probe. That would surely be seen by (almost) one and all as a conflict of interest — or worse. But:
The law firm’s California office appears to make regular contributions to the GOP group, which Christie has credited with helping him get elected in 2009. Many companies make annual contributions to the Republican Governors Association and its Democratic counterpart to gain access to events the governors attend.
Gibson Dunn has not yet donated to the Democratic Governors Association this year and did not make contributions to the group in 2013 or 2012.
The donation was made 9 days before their report clearing Christie.
Hey, not donating to the Democrats and the timing of all this are probably just oversights and coincidences. Right?
Shaking my head in disbelief. Law firm hired by Christie 4 internal probe donated $10K in '14 to RGA – See more at: http://t.co/K20C1AunfJ
— Ellen Miller (@EllnMllr) April 16, 2014
Now this is just dumb: Law firm hired by Christie for internal probe donated $10K in 2014 to Christie-led RGA http://t.co/XYMmryvfwE
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) April 16, 2014
Conflict of interest: Law firm that exonerated Christie also donated $10K to the Christie-chaired RGA http://t.co/DsGv1QkgC7
— Salon.com (@Salon) April 16, 2014
-Chris Christie hires law firm for internal probe
-Firm donates to RGA
-Firm clears Christie in Bridgegate
-Justice
http://t.co/Ni6u9762Uq
— Americans United (@AU4Change) April 16, 2014
9 days before lawyers made public a report clearing Christie, their law firm donated $10k to Republican Governrs Assn http://t.co/lUVVfgWTiY
— Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) April 16, 2014
Whitewashing Law Firm That Cleared Christie In Bridge Scandal Donated To Group He Heads – http://t.co/W1dR1aNkol #p2 #tcot
— Terrell Lewis (@SgBz) April 16, 2014
Notice how nobody is talking about a possible Chris Christie candidacy in 2016 anymore. These stories keep coming. http://t.co/uSylEorHGp
— Chris Lavoie (@RadioGuyChris) April 16, 2014
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.