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David Samson, Christie Associate and Ex-Port Authority Chief, Pleads Guilty to Felony David Samson, Ally of Christie, Admits to Bribery Over Airline Route
(about 5 hours later)
David Samson, a close associate of Gov. Chris Christie, pleaded guilty on Thursday to a felony in connection with the federal prosecution of the intentional tie-up of traffic at the George Washington Bridge in 2013. David Samson, a longtime friend of Gov. Chris Christie, pleaded guilty to a felony count of bribery on Thursday and admitted that he had pressured United Airlines to operate a weekly flight to South Carolina for his personal convenience.
Mr. Samson was the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns and operates the bridge, when the scheme was hatched by allies of Mr. Christie, a New Jersey Republican. Federal prosecutors investigated Mr. Samson’s use of his position at the Port Authority to benefit himself and his former law firm, Wolff & Samson. The plea, offered before Judge Jose L. Linares of United States District Court in Newark, appears to put an end to Mr. Samson’s career as a public official and power broker. And it casts a shadow over the political fortunes of Mr. Christie, a New Jersey Republican who until this week had been considered a potential running mate for Donald J. Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee for president.
That investigation homed in on Mr. Samson’s dealings with officials of United Airlines, the main tenant of Newark Liberty International Airport, which is also run by the Port Authority. United had been operating weekly flights between Newark and a small airport in Columbia, S.C., that was near a home owned by Mr. Samson. “One of the problems with Chris Christie is there are skeletons in his closet that still have skin on the bones,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said.
The airline had canceled the flights, but on Thursday, Mr. Samson, appearing in United States District Court in Newark, admitted that he used his position as the agency’s chairman to pressure United into reinstating the route. The prosecution of Mr. Samson grew out of a federal investigation into the closing of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in 2013. Federal prosecutors contend that allies of Mr. Christie at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey conspired to tie up traffic on the New Jersey side of the bridge to punish a local mayor for declining to endorse Mr. Christie’s bid for re-election as governor.
Mr. Samson and his wife were regular passengers on the sparsely used route, which was called “the chairman’s flight” by Port Authority officials. United halted the flight three days after Mr. Samson, who was appointed by Mr. Christie, resigned from the agency in March 2014. Mr. Samson, who was Mr. Christie’s appointee as chairman of the Port Authority at the time of the lane closings, has not been charged in that case. But two of the governor’s former allies, Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, are scheduled to stand trial in September for their alleged roles in the bridge-traffic scheme. A third, David Wildstein, has already pleaded guilty in that case.
His guilty plea came as Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, prepared to announce his choice to be his running mate. Though Mr. Christie, who leads Mr. Trump’s transition team, appeared to be out of the running, he was among several candidates who had been vetted by the Trump campaign. Paul J. Fishman, the United States attorney for New Jersey, declined to say whether Mr. Samson was cooperating with the prosecution of the lane-closing case. The Port Authority is the nexus of the two matters because it operates the bridge and the three big commercial airports in the New York City area.
While it was unclear how seriously Mr. Christie was being considered, some political analysts said his ties to Mr. Samson would not have helped. Mr. Fishman said that Mr. Samson, 76, had abused his position at the agency by coercing United to reinstate a canceled route between Newark Liberty International Airport and Columbia, S.C., near one of Mr. Samson’s homes. He said Mr. Samson had threatened to block the construction of a maintenance hangar for United at the airport unless the airline restored the “money-losing” flight.
“If Christie’s chances weren’t dead already, I would think that this Samson thing would be the big flashing light that says if you pick Chris Christie this campaign will end up being about Chris Christie,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “Even Donald Trump, who generally doesn’t care about the normal concerns that other candidates have, would have to look at this and say, ‘Would I really want to be dealing with this?’” Tall and broad-shouldered, Mr. Samson, a former New Jersey attorney general, spoke on Thursday in a soft voice when the judge asked if he understood that he could spend up to two years in prison and that his license to practice law might be affected. He said he did.
Mr. Murray noted that Mr. Christie’s job-approval ratings were at all-time lows, below 30 percent approval in all of the major polls in New Jersey. Judge Linares scheduled a sentencing hearing for Oct. 20.
It has been a long, slow fall from power for Mr. Samson, a former New Jersey attorney general who has been close to state officials for decades. He was an adviser to two former governors, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican, and James J. Florio, a Democrat, as well as chief counsel to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority in the 1980s. Mr. Fishman said he was saddened because “David Samson was a major force in the legal community in New Jersey.” He added, “This kind of case shakes public confidence in our institutions of government, when people who are so accomplished and who have occupied so many positions of public trust misuse their authority to get something for themselves.”
But Mr. Samson’s alliance with Mr. Christie appears to have been the strongest. He was counsel to Mr. Christie’s 2009 campaign for governor and led his transition committee. Later, Mr. Samson was among the close advisers who traveled to Arizona with the governor when Mr. Christie became chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Mr. Samson also accompanied Mr. Christie to the Republican National Convention in 2012, according to an associate. Mr. Fishman also announced that Jamie Fox, a former executive of the Port Authority and former transportation commissioner in New Jersey appointed by Mr. Christie, had been charged with conspiring to commit bribery in connection with the flight. Mr. Fox, who was a lobbyist for United, advised Mr. Samson on how to pressure the airline to acquiesce to his demand, Mr. Fishman said.
Wolff & Samson, which Mr. Samson helped found, enjoyed close ties to New Jersey’s government for decades. The firm served as outside counsel to state agencies and also lobbied agencies on behalf of clients seeking state contracts, favorable regulatory changes and approvals for large development projects. In one email exchange, he said, Mr. Fox told Mr. Samson, “You have them dancing.” Mr. Samson wrote back: “Good. I hope they dance to my tune — let me know if there’s a way to keep the pressure on this issue: It will save me a lot of heartache.”
After Mr. Samson retired from the firm in 2015, it was immediately renamed Chiesa, Shahinian & Giantomasi. Jeff Chiesa, a name partner at the firm, worked for Mr. Christie in the United States attorney’s office in New Jersey, and as his chief counsel and attorney general when Mr. Christie became governor. Mr. Christie also appointed him to temporarily fill the Senate seat left open when Frank R. Lautenberg, a Democrat, died in 2013. The Port Authority staff had recommended that its board of commissioners approve a lease deal with United for the hangar. But Mr. Samson, who controlled the agendas of the board’s meetings, pulled the matter off the agenda in November 2011, Mr. Fishman said.
Mr. Fox then advised Mr. Samson to bring it up for a vote at the December 2011 meeting to demonstrate his clout to United, Mr. Fishman said. Less than a year after the hangar deal was approved, United started flying a plane every Thursday evening from Newark to Columbia, a short drive from Mr. Samson’s home in Aiken, S.C. Every Monday morning, United flew a plane back to Newark. Mr. Fishman said that Mr. Samson used the flights 27 times.
Mr. Fishman said Mr. Samson and other agency officials called the route “the chairman’s flight,” adding that Mr. Fox referred to it as “Samson Air.”
Mr. Fox, 61, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
“They both should have known better,” Mr. Fishman said of Mr. Samson and Mr. Fox. “They both did know better.”
Although Mr. Fishman said United “caved” to the pressure from Mr. Samson, neither the airline nor any of its executives will be charged in connection with the case. United agreed to pay a penalty of $2.25 million, he said.
Mr. Fishman said United had cooperated and responded just as prosecutors would have wanted. He noted that among the actions the airline took were the dismissals of several executives, including Jeff Smisek, its former chairman and chief executive.
United stopped flying the route soon after Mr. Samson resigned from the Port Authority in 2014. He retired last year from Wolff & Samson, the law firm he helped found.
The firm had been very close to the state’s government for decades and had served as outside counsel to state agencies. It had also lobbied agencies on behalf of clients seeking state contracts, favorable regulation changes and approval for large development projects.
The firm immediately changed its name to Chiesa, Shahinian & Giantomasi. Jeff Chiesa, one of the partners, worked for Mr. Christie in the United States attorney’s office, and as his chief counsel and attorney general. He was appointed by the governor to temporarily fill the United States Senate seat left open when Frank R. Lautenberg died in 2013.
After the hearing on Thursday, Mr. Samson exhaled deeply as one of his lawyers, Justin Walder, escorted him away from the courtroom. He and Mr. Walder declined to comment.
Another or Mr. Samson’s lawyers, Michael Chertoff, the former secretary of homeland security, said, “The next you’ll hear from us is at the sentencing.”