Being a trial lawyer causes a person to see the world in ways perhaps different from others. Having to judge the credibility of witnesses, discuss their testimony with jurors in closing argument and/or prepare for cross examination, I tend to see events like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s press conference from that courtroom perspective. The signs of dishonesty permeated the first 30 minutes or so of the presser. That’s all I stayed tuned in for before turning away in disgust.
Let’s begin with the obvious. The Gov kept repeating that he just learned about all this for the first time yesterday. Though he said it in various ways, I wrote down one verbatim. “I found this out at 8:50 yesterday morning.” Which, if you think about it, challenges the imagination to reconcile another of his statements…that he hadn’t slept in two nights worrying about this. Last I checked, a one day period has only one night, at least for most mortals. The possibility exists that New Jersey has a special clock that has two nights of sleeplessness when the Governor orders it. I don’t know.
Beyond directly conflicting statements, we might also want to consider what is and is not believable in a real world setting. To believe that he just learned about this yesterday by getting a message about a newspaper story, one would have to believe that nobody at the Bergen Register, neither reporter nor editor, called the Governor’s office for comment on the bombshell they were about to drop in Wednesday morning’s edition.
Then there’s that other head scratching collision with the real world. These emails were turned over by Christie’s friend since high school and former appointee to the Commission that oversaw the bridge. So his friend (who is suing to quash other parts of the subpoena) dutifully turned over the emails days before the story broke, but never notified his lifelong friend that that the you-know-what was about to hit the fan.
Christie basically told the world that nearly his entire inner circle was engaged in a conspiracy to lie to him and keep him in the dark. Not a single Christie loyalist ever warned him about either what happened or what was about to be reported? Really? Christie wants you to believe not only that his closest operatives were doing this behind his back and without his knowledge, but that they engaged in an openly disloyal conspiracy to prevent him from learning the truth or preparing for the fallout. Did I mention that common sense plays a role in determining truthfulness?
Two other questions came to my mind watching this. Why did Christie continue to insist that there may have been a “traffic study” involved. And why did he leave the door open to more revelations about other political retribution coming out, of which he, of course, denies any actual knowledge. Looks to this grizzled old law dog like he’s setting up to use the same excuse when the next shoe drops.
On a humorous note, one of the commenters on the site where I watched the Fib-A-Thon, er, press conference, noted the ironic similarity between Nixon’s “I am not a crook” and Christie’s statement during his presser “I am not a bully.”
Contributor, aka tidbits. Retired attorney in complex litigation, death penalty defense and constitutional law. Former Nat’l Board Chair: Alzheimer’s Association. Served on multiple political campaigns, including two for U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR). Contributing author to three legal books and multiple legal publications.