File this under Post-Horse-Bolt Barn Door Closings. From The New York Times:
Rockefeller Group, a real estate developer whose proposed office complex in Hoboken, N.J., is at the center of allegations that associates of Gov. Chris Christie threatened to withhold Hurricane Sandy relief money from the city unless the project received approval, has severed its connections with a law firm with close ties to the governor.
Rockefeller Group said on Thursday that last week it had terminated its contract with the firm, Wolff & Samson, ending a relationship that began in 2007.
...
Wolff & Samson was founded by David Samson, whom Mr. Christie named as chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2010. A former member of Mr. Christie’s cabinet, Lori Grifa, who now works at the law firm, lobbied state officials on behalf of the project.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
So the contractor who was allegedly working hand in glove with the Christie Administration to muscle Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, has now fired the law firm headed by the Christie-appointed head of the Port Authority, David Samson.
Here's some backstory from Talking Points Memo:
In June 2010 a member of the governor’s cabinet, Lori Grifa, the commissioner at the Department of Community Affairs, encouraged the city of Hoboken to apply to the Port Authority for a grant that would fund a study to determine whether a nineteen-block neighborhood in the northern corner of the town should be classified as suitable for “redevelopment.” That’s the same neighborhood where the Rockefeller Group bought three blocks in 2008.
...
During the weeks before Hoboken’s planning board was set to decide whether or not to endorse that conclusion, Hoboken officials heard from Lori Grifa again. Only this time she wasn’t calling as the commissioner at the Department of Community Affairs; she was calling as the lawyer representing the Rockefeller Group from the firm of Wolff & Samson, where she heads the firm’s regulatory affairs unit. Grifa left the cabinet in 2011, and under state rules she wasn’t allowed to do lobbying work for a year afterwards. So in 2013 it was fine for her to lobby on behalf of a client regarding a grant she arranged while she was in public service – a grant that came from the agency chaired by the head of her firm.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
Almost comically, the Rockefeller Group has now released a statement saying that, if true, Mayor Zimmer's allegations are "deplorable."
For more on this story, check out the recent diary by Onomastic:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Update 1:
From the comments, AnnetteK has found an NBC report of now another city in New Jersey that received fishy Sandy money. From NBC News:
Gov. Chris Christie's administration is again facing questions about how Sandy aid was distributed in New Jersey after it was revealed $4.8 million in relief funds went to help build an apartment tower in New Brunswick, a town that saw relatively little storm damage. Chris Glorioso reports.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/...
(Must-see Video at link!)
For more on this just-uncovered New Brunswick funny money, please see the post by middlegirl, titled:
Second Allegation of Sandy Funds with a Shaq Cameo
http://www.dailykos.com/...