Legislator: Probe Finds No Cause for GWB Closure

A New Jersey assemblyman who is holding hearings on whether lane closures on ramps to the George Washington Bridge last year were caused as political retribution says that he has reviewed pages of emails, text messages and other documents on the matter and cannot find any traffic-related explanation for the closures.

“I’ve gone through all 907 pages twice … and I’ve never seen any explanation,” Assemblyman John Wisniewski said about subpoenaed documents from the Port Authority.

The Democrat has been trying to determine whether the closures were a way to sting Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for declining to endorse Republican Gov. Chris Christie in his re-election.

Wisniewski said that the materials he has studied suggest that someone outside the agency initiated the lane closures caused backups in Fort Lee for four days in September. Port Authority officials have said that the unannounced lane closures were part of a traffic study.

“There are documents that we’ve received that would indicate that there was somebody else who initiated this,” he said. “There are words that are used that would imply an improper motive.”

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the January 3rd, 2014 edition of Hamodia.