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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/28/chris-christie-port-authority-chairman-david-samson-quits
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Chris Christie confirms Port Authority chairman David Samson has quit | Chris Christie confirms Port Authority chairman David Samson has quit |
(35 minutes later) | |
The governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, announced on Friday that the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, David Samson, has resigned. | The governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, announced on Friday that the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, David Samson, has resigned. |
Samson refused to be interviewed for an inquiry commissioned by Christie over the politically motivated closure of lanes leading to the George Washington bridge, a key link between New Jersey and New York that comes under the control of the Port Authority, last year. | |
The inquiry, by the law firm Gibson Dunn and Crutcher, published on Thursday, recommended that the Port Authority be reformed. | |
It blamed the scandal on Bridget Anne Kelly, the governor’s then deputy chief of staff, who was fired after the extent of her involvement came to light, and David Wildstein, a Christie appointee on the Port Authority who orchestrated the closures for Kelly. | |
But it left unanswered questions over the role of Samson in the lane closures and their aftermath. Randy Mastro, the partner at Gibson Dunn and Crutcher who supervised the inquiry, said in a news conference on Thursday that the chairman had "deined any prior knowledge" of the incident in previous statements, "but we did not have the opportunity to interview him". | |
Christie said he accepted Samson's resignation on Friday afternoon. | |
The report concluded that while Wildstein may have told the governor about the lane closures when they were in place, Christie did not recall being informed and would not have realised their significance. “Governor Christie did not know of the lane realignment beforehand and had no involvement in the decision to realign the lanes,” it concluded. | |
More details soon … | More details soon … |