From The Wall Street Journal:
A federal grand jury investigating the George Washington Bridge scandal has subpoenaed a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey attorney with close ties to Gov. Chris Christie's administration, people familiar with the matter said.
...
Mr. Kwon recently received the subpoena for his testimony as part of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman's investigation into the lane closures, the people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Kwon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. He has retained a prominent defense attorney, Geoffrey S. Berman, co-managing shareholder of the New Jersey office of Greenberg Traurig, LLP.
...
Mr. Kwon acted as a liaison between the Port Authority and the administration in discussing who would testify before New Jersey lawmakers in November, according to the internal investigation.
He sat in on preparations by the agency's former deputy executive director, Bill Baroni, to testify before New Jersey lawmakers about the lane closures last November, Port Authority officials have said. He also participated on a conference call to discuss Mr. Baroni's testimony once he was selected to speak, according to the internal investigation.
http://online.wsj.com/...
Phillip Kwon surely knows a lot. You may remember he was the one who, for five days, worked with Bill Baroni to shape his bullshit Traffic Study presentation, which has since been fully debunked.
Kwon is the Port Authority's deputy general counsel, a consolation prize job from Christie after having been unsuccessfully nominated to the NJ Supreme Court. Now Kwon has hired a high-powered attorney of his own, and I'd bet the Port Authority is picking up the tab. That's how it works - protect Christie, and he'll make sure your legal bills are paid.
Giant h/t to AnnetteK for sending me the story. Xoxo
Update 1:
From the comments, it appears the $64,000 question is whether Kwon will be able to claim attorney/client privilege as regards his coaching of Baroni. AnnetteK finds this interesting twitter conversation:
Brian Murphy @Burrite
Interesting that Port Authority in-house counsel advice to PA staff may not be covered by attorney-client privilege. #bridgegate
Shawn Boburg @ShawnBoburg
@Burrite I believe the question is whether the privelege has been "pierced," by sharing with a third party. If so, PA may have waived it.
To which our
CenPhx responds:
I can't remember this for sure, but I think attorney-client privilege cannot be claimed for conversations that are a crime or part of a criminal conspiracy. What I mean is that if Kwon were knowingly prepping Baroni to commit perjury and at the behest of Christie, I don't think either conversation would be privileged. But I haven't consider that law since the bar exam loooong ago
.