By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
You had to feel for her, Save Jerseyans.
Former Christie Administration Christina Genovese Renna, who resigned back in January from her front office position, appeared before the joint legislative committee investigating the Bridgegate scandal on Tuesday afternoon and laid bear her account of her seemingly complicated professional relationship with Bridget Ann Kelly, the alleged force behind the Fort Lee lane closures. She’s the first of a new batch of subpoenaed Christie world individuals to testify this spring.
Democrats drilled into her testimony looking for contradictions from the Renna-centric portions of the Gibson Dunn internal review. Republicans challenged the ruling party on several occasions as partisan tensions flared over “gotchya” questions. Renna did dispute elements of the Gibson Dunn report including the existence of a “mandatory directive” and the conclusion that Kelly was an architect of the scandal’s underlying events.
Senator Loretta Weinberg stayed awake long enough to elaborate on her party’s “mandatory directive” inquiry…
“Renna believed Stepien kept track of mayors who were not in favor with IGA, but Renna was not privy to that process. But IGA staff would receive mandatory directives along the lines of “do not rush to return this mayor’s phone call.” Renna recalled an IGA staffer asking Renna, “Can we get a list of hands-off mayors?” Renna remembered responding, “You know we won’t get it, and it would change daily anyway.”
Renna, again, didn’t like Gibson Dunn’s attorney’s phraseology:
“‘Mandatory directive’ were not my words. If you notice, they are not in quotation marks. That was Gibson Dunn’s words. That was their characterization. They are never words I would have used. I would never use ‘mandatory directive,’ except in one incident which we can circle back to. They were not my words.”
I’m an attorney and I felt uncomfortable for her. Sometimes good people find themselves caught in a bad situation, and from all accounts, that’s what happened to Ms. Renna. To make matters worse, most lawyers never have to argue in front of a panel that is at war with itself. You can click here to watch (it’s still ongoing as of this writing); here’s the part where she gets more than a little emotional…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfwH-9j34MM
