Oops?
Another potential scandal in Chris Christie-land keeps trundling forward, this one related to the allegation that Christie improperly (and potentially criminally) squashed a grand jury indictment of a Christie-connected county sheriff.
Not in dispute: after the sheriff of Hunterdon County and two subordinates were indicted on 43 counts by a grand jury, the Christie administration that very day moved in to strip the case from local prosecutors, promptly asking the judge to overturn those indictments. Also not in dispute: this was done over the strong objections of those prosecutors, investigators, and even members of the grand jury themselves. (In an ironic Bridgegate-esque preview, Christie later appointed the state attorney general who quashed the Hunterdon case to a high-salaried position at ... the Port Authority.)
One of those prosecutors, Bennett Barlyn, was fired for his objections to the administration's handling over the case. He's filed a lawsuit over the dismissal, and that case just got a noteworthy boost.
Last Friday, Barlyn finally got his first big break when a superior court judge ordered the state to give him access to the grand jury records that Barlyn believes will prove his case. He is no hot-head. He's a respected career prosecutor, and a former deputy attorney general.
Will this one blow up in a full-blown scandal? That's not clear yet.
The Christie administration has been fighting to keep those grand jury records sealed; the judge ordering their release to Barlyn is already one blow to the administration. Barlyn, however, intends to use those records to show that the Christie team sabotaged the indictment for purely political reasons.
So stay tuned, and so forth: The next few months could feature some top-notch Christie humiliation. On the campaign trail, I mean. And also this too, I suppose.