TRENTON, N.J. – Democrats wanted the receipts when Chris Christie was governor, Save Jerseyans.
Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn wants the same standard applied to Mikie Sherrill.
Flynn is calling on the governor to release the interview memos, attorney notes and supporting documents behind the taxpayer-funded investigation into former Lt. Governor Dale Caldwell, arguing that the report leaves major questions about Sherrill’s own role unanswered.
“You don’t get to investigate your own administration, release a report and tell the public that’s the end of the story,” Flynn said. “They demanded the records behind the Christie report. We’re demanding the same thing now. If that standard applied to Chris Christie, it applies to Mikie Sherrill.”
The Bridgegate comparison comes with a specific precedent: according to Flynn, Democratic legislative investigators demanded the underlying records behind the Christie administration’s commissioned report in 2014, threatening subpoenas before 75 interview memos were ultimately surrendered.
Now? Flynn wants the documentation behind former Attorney General Christopher Porrino’s Caldwell investigation.
The report describes warnings, training and counseling from senior administration officials beginning in March. But Flynn says it fails to answer whether Sherrill was interviewed, when she learned of the concerns, whether she personally confronted Caldwell, and why he continued serving as secretary of state and acting governor while under investigation.
Caldwell, meanwhile, is publicly disputing the findings, alleging investigators ignored conflicting witness accounts and denied him an opportunity to respond to their conclusions before the report’s release.
“There’s a big hole in this report where the governor should be,” Flynn said. “Release the interview records and let the public see who said what, who knew what and what the governor did about it.”
Flynn emphasized that disclosure should protect the identities of the staffer who reported harassment and others who came forward.
“Protect the victims. Redact their names. But don’t use their privacy as a shield for the governor,” she said.
And if Sherrill refuses? Flynn wants a bipartisan Assembly investigative committee with subpoena power.
Democrats already supplied the blueprint. Flynn is asking whether they’ll follow it when the governor has a “D” after her name.
