Christie fires aide, apologizes for traffic jams

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie talks throughout a report seminar Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014, at the Statehouse in Trenton, N.J. A day after revelations that Christie's administration may have shut highway lanes to exact political retribution, the prospective Republican presidential candidate is faced with what may be the large-scale check in his political career. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Moving rapidly to quell a widening political scandal, Gov. Chris Christie discharged one of his peak aides Thursday and acknowledged frequently for the "abject stupidity" of his staff, insisting he had no concept any person round him had engineered traffic jams as retribution against a Democratic head.

"I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team," the Republican governor said at a news conference in which he patiently took inquiries from reporters — and responded in his normally blunt latest trend — for nearly two hours.

Christie, who had previously assured the public that his employees had no engagement in the lane closings last September that initiated foremost backups at the George Washington connection, said he discharged Deputy Chief of employees Bridget Anne Kelly "because she deceived to me" when he claimed weeks before that any person who knew any thing about the episode arrive ahead.

Kelly was the latest casualty in a scandal that intimidates to upend Christie's second term and his anticipated run for leader in 2016. Two other peak Christie appointees have resigned in the past couple of weeks.

The investigation broke broad open on Wednesday, with the issue of emails and text messages that suggested Kelly arranged the traffic jams to penalize outpost Lee's head for not endorsing Christie for re-election. The gridlock delayed crisis vehicles, school motor coaches and countless commuters for four days.

In other developments in the case:

— The head government prosecutor in New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, said he was "reviewing the matter to determine if a government regulation was implicated." The Legislature is furthermore investigating. utilising public assets for political finishes can be a crime.

— David Wildstein, a previous Christie appointee who resigned from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey after being implicated in the scandal, denied to answer inquiries Thursday from the legislative committee that is enquiring.

in addition to firing Kelly, the administrator inquired his previous campaign supervisor account Stepien to remove from a bid to become the next state GOP head person. He said he was distracted by the "callous indifference" brandished by Stepien in the internet messages issued Wednesday. Stepien had broadly been glimpsed as a promise campaign supervisor for Christie if he runs for president.

At the report seminar, Christie said he designed to proceed to Fort Lee on Thursday to acknowledge to Mayor assess Sokolich in individual. Sokolich accepted Christie's news-conference apology but urged the governor to hold up his visit, saying he supposes the entire story has yet to arrive out.

The head said the internet notes and text notes revealed that the governor's agency was tainted by "venomous, petty" government.

The allegations turned a localizedized traffic furor into a national issue and increased new inquiries about the governor's leadership and integrity as he lays the groundwork for a White dwelling tender.

"I had no information or engagement in this issue, in its planning or execution," he said of the roadway closings. "And I am shocked by the abject stupidity that was shown here."

Christie concentrated frequently not on the lane closings themselves but on how distressed he was that his employees didn't tell him the reality when inquired, saying he was "heartbroken" and "betrayed" by his tight-knit circle of advisers. He said he saw the internet notes and text notes for the first time on Wednesday, and was "blindsided" by what he read.

"What did I do wrong to have these folks think it was OK to lie to me?" he inquired.

Kelly hasn't commented. Christie said he hadn't voiced to her since the internet messages were issued, saying he didn't desire to be suspect of trying to leverage a likely witness.

"Time for some traffic problems in outpost Lee," Kelly wrote in August in a note to Wildstein. A couple of weeks subsequent, Wildstein shut two of three roadways connecting outpost Lee to the heavily traveled George Washington connection, which sprints between New Jersey and New York town.

For weeks, Christie had claimed that the closings were not punitive but part of a traffic study. On Thursday, he acknowledged that was a lie, because his employees didn't notify him what it had finished.

At the same time, he said: "I am to blame for what occurred. I am miserable to report to the persons of New Jersey that we dropped short."

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Associated Press author Steve Peoples in Washington contributed to this report.
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