sunday, yesterday, she says she spent more than two hours meeting with the u.s. attorney's office in new jersey, the federal prosecutor who was started an inquiry on the bridge issue in new jersey. mayor zimmer says the meeting was at the request of the u.s. attorney. she said that she has not only answered all of the u.s. attorney's questions thus far, but that she also handed over her personal diary. she handed over her journal to the prosecutors. that was her contemporaneous accounting of what happened back in may when she said those two members of the christie cabinet, effectively, shook her down for sandy relief money. the claims from the hoboken mayor are explosive. if proven, they could potentially be even more damaging than the allegations around the shutting down of lanes on to the george washington bridge. not only because the alleged shakedown here would be, itself, an egregious abuse of public power for private ends, but also because the handling of sandy, and the recovery effort is something that governor christie expects to be central to his national appeal as a politic

charges related to his attempts to benefit from choosing a replacement for president obama in the u.s. senate, in effect trying to sell a senate seat. jurors said fbi wiretaps of his phone conversations were the key here. and as he met with reporters after the verdict today, blagojevich told him he was trying to learn his lesson about talking too much. >> i frankly am stunned. there's not much left to say other than we want to get home to our little girls and talk to them and explain things to them. and then try to sort things out. >> jurors added they wanted the verdict to send a message to public servants about the line between deal making and corruption. blagojevich will become the fourth illinois governor in recent memory to go to jail. his predecessor george ryan is still in federal prison, also for corruption. >> before illinois democratic governor rod blagojevich started serving 14 years in federal prison for corruption, while he was still governor of illinois, while he was fighting those corruption charges against him. rod blagojevich did a round of media interviews in new yor

was chris christie's time as u.s. attorney. quote, when chris christie got the u.s. attorney post, he had no sympathy for the poor old pauls who were plying their crooked trade at taxpayer expense. chris christie cut a far more public figure than previous u.s. attorneys. every week seemed to bring a few development, a perk walk or a leaked word from christie's office of an official being subpoenaed. after he had been in office as u.s. attorney for a year, the media and people on the street were already suggesting chris christie should run for governor. chris christie was appointed u.s. attorney for the state of new jersey in 2001. he was appointed by president george w. bush. mr. christie had no prior experience in law enforcement at the time. he certainly had no prior experience as a prosecutor. he was a lobbyist in his previous job. but he had also been a pioneer for the george w. bush for president campaign in 2000. mr. christie bundled middle eastern half a billion in campaign funds from bush-cheney in 2000. that was apparently enough to get him considered for the u.s. attorne

that be on the able as well as the investigation goes forward? we know the u.s. attorney and the fbi are investigating hoboken. could the investigations affect how the legislature can investigate that matter? number three, and perhaps most importantly, will governor christie's top staff and his appointees and his re-election campaign and his own office, the office of the governor of the state of new jersey, will all of those individuals and entities comply with the subpoenas that are now technically being reissued through this new committee of the legislature. those reams of documents and blackberries and iphones and ipads and call records and instant messrecords and diaries and calendars that the subpoenas say all have to be handed over a week from today, on monday, the day after the super bowl. will those be handed over? are they going to do it? stay with us. >>> i have to read this to you and get your response to it because it was one of the most vicious little jabs in there. after following an article about the traffic jam, we have david wildstein who just resigned saying it will

energy? is it africa? the middle east? canada? or the u.s.? the answer is... the u.s. ♪ most of america's energy comes from right here at home. take the energy quiz. energy lives here. what are you guys doing? having some fiber! with new phillips' fiber good gummies. they're fruity delicious! just two gummies have 4 grams of fiber! to help support regularity! i want some... [ woman ] hop on over! [ marge ] fiber the fun way, from phillips'. >>> to prep for the show every day, me and everybody who works on the show, we read a lot of stories from small local newspapers, we read all the national stuff too, but we really depend on local papers and local websites and local news bloggers and reporters for news that is not yet national news, like for instance, the wendy davis filibuster this summer. without the texas tribune hooking up that video feed and having their reporter tweeting the play by play, the wendy davis filibuster may never have become national news and she may not be running for governor. and then when mark sanford went missing and tried to tell people he was hiking th

a bigger annual budget than at least nine u.s. states. the very first time we covered the scandal around the george washington bridge in new jersey, which was back in early december, we interviewed the democratic assemblyman who's the head of the transportation -- who's the head of transportation issues in the new jersey assembly. he has since become a very famous guy. his name is john wisniewski. now he's nationally known. he does the sunday network shows, right? he is famous now because he's running the investigation in the legislature into chris christie's administration and what happened on that bridge connecting new york and new jersey, the george washington bridge. looking to the lane shutdowns on that bridge that gridlocked the town of ft. lee and other issues beyond that now. but when we first contacted john wisniewski as a source on this story, he was very eager for us to understand that trying to oversee the port authority was not like any other little transportation agency anywhere else in the country. finding a scandal at that particular agency is not like, you know, b

the committee or legislature. he has to deal with the u.s. attorneys and attorneys general in both states. >> the damning and memorable e-mail says, time for traffic problems in ft. lee. that was from a woman named bridget anne kelly. the governor at the press conference said he never spoke with miss kelly after that e-mail surfaced. do you intend to subpoena bridget kelly to get answers to the questions. >> we intend to subpoena bridget kelly. i want to point out, rachel. there's a pattern here. when pat foy came and said this was all david wildstein's idea, he did this, it was his plan and we asked the question, well, of course you spoke with him, didn't you? no, of course not. now the governor, well this was all bridget kelly's idea. you spoke to her, no? of course not. and so it seems like the plan is let's just fire the people or terminate them or have them resign and not ask any questions which doesn't seem to meet the expectation the governor created today that he really wants to get to the bottom of it. he wants to sweep it under the rug by making people disappear. >> some

. >> i think the viewers, unfortunately because of past actions of u.s. attorneys like chris christie when they were there, the subpoena was almost used as a hammer of criminal indictment. the reality is, subpoenas are an investigative tool for discovery. the people we've sent the subpoenas to, we don't know if they're done anything wrong. we're not saying they did. but we want to find out what they know. but we know one thing for sure, there was an egregious abuse of power, unlike anything i've seen in my 18 years in the state legislature. we want to know how deep that abuse was and ultimately what was the root of that abuse of power. we believe by going through this process in a systematic fashion, we will find that answer. >> i asked assemblyman wisniewsky this question as well and he didn't have an answer for me on it. i wonder with your background as a lawyer -- he's a lawyer too, but maybe you have a different perspective on it. that is, about the issue of destruction of documents and destruction of e-mail chains and text messages and things like that. in the way that this has u

as u.s. attorney. deputy chief of staff before the chief of staff. he's been chris christie's closest aide for a long time running day-to-day operations of the administration including during the time that the deputy chief of staff seems to have ordered the shut down of traffic in ft. lee, new jersey, as a way of settling some as yet poorly understood political vendetta. chris christie's chief of staff is the man governor christi says he turned to when he first started asking his staff questions about the bridge scandal. governor christie says he relied on his chief counsel and on mr. o'dowd, the chief of staff, to talk to everybody else. to get anybody else on his staff who knew anything about the bridge shutdown to fess up. now that he has been nominated to be the next attorney general for the state, kevin o'dowd may be in the position to ask his former colleagues, once again, what they knew about the manufactured traffic jam in ft. lee, because if he is confirmed as attorney general, he might find himself running a criminal investigation into this whole affair. and accordin

energy? is it africa? the middle east? canada? or the u.s.? the answer is... the u.s. ♪ most of america's energy comes from right here at home. take the energy quiz. energy lives here. >>> one of the guys at heart of all this, the guy who ordered the lanes close, the guy who democrats say was trying to punish that mayor who didn't endorse christie, well, i know that guy. his name is david wielsteen and he's played a big role in my professional life. i used to work for him. you couldcy i owe my career to him. >> msnbc's steve corinachi has a relationship with the key guy in the chris christie scandal. steve joins us live next. [ male announcer ] alka seltzer plus presents the cold truth. [ coughs, sneezes ] [ sniffles ] i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? [ male announcer ] nope. they don't have a decongestant. really? [ male announcer ] really. alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a fast-acting decongestant to relieve

former attorney general of the state of new jersey. chris christie calls him general samson. when u.s. senator frank lautenberg died and chris christie needed to pick somebody to take that u.s. senate seat and become a u.s. senator temporarily until a special election could be held, chris christie tapped jeffrey ciasa. when governor christie started his term as the chairman of the republican governor's association, "david samson was among the group of close advisers who went to arizona with chris christie in november to the aga meeting." "as a sign that samson is seen as important to christie's national run for office." david samson and chris christie are very close, when it came out in those subpoenaed documents, this e-mail from david wildstein, "david samson is helping us to retaliate." that was a big deal in terms of how high the scandal goes and how close the scandal gets to governor chris christie. and on the day that governor christie apologized and he said he was humiliated and called his deputy chief of staff stupid and he said the other people involved were stupid and deceit

unnecessary vaginal ultrasound probe, but, still. "the washington post" reported in december that the u.s. attorney was ready to levy these charges against bob and maureen mcdonnell, while the governor was still in office in december, and that would have made him the first sitting virginia governor to be criminally indicted ever in the history of that state. federal justice department officials in washington reportedly intervened and told prosecutors to delay bringing those charges. delay the charges until after the gubernatorial transition had taken place in virginia, which it did, just 11 days ago. so 11 days after he was inaugurated, he gave the state of the union response and everybody said he was going to be the next republican process. 11 days after he left office, charges, $1 million in fines, possible, if he's convicted. today governor bob mcdonnell denied these charges vigorously. he said they were a manifestation of overreach by the federal government. >> good evening. i am here with my wife, maureen, and my daughter, kalen, and my son-in-law, chris, and i really appreciate this

u.s. attorney and the fbi are investigating hoboken. could the investigations affect how the legislature can investigate that matter? number three, and perhaps most importantly, will governor christ christie's top staff and his appointees and his re-election campaign and his own office, the office of the governor of the state of new jersey, will all of those individuals and entities comply with the subpoenas that are now technically being reissued but t through this new committee of the legislature. those reams of documents and blackberries and iphones and i-pads and call records and instant message records and diaries and calendars that the subpoenas say all have to be handed over a week from today, on monday, the day after the the super bowl. will those be handed over? are they going to do it? stay with us. [ male announcer ] this is kevin. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again.

who have jumped from mayor to u.s. senator, but cory booker did that. and the city he jumped from is new jersey's largest. the second largest city in new jersey is jersey city. and jersey city, too, is starting to become known for its rising star of a democratic mayor. his name is steven fullop, he is 36 years old. his parents were immigrants to this country. h grew up working in their deli in newark. he worked hard, went to college, got himself a great job after college working on wall street. he was working at goldman sachs. but then in 2002, he gave it all up to enlist in the marine corps. he signed up and shipped off to iraq. when he came back, he ran again -- he ran an against-the-odds campaign for city council in jersey city and he beat the incumbent and got himself a seat on the city council. then this past year, steven fullop ran an against-the-odds campaign for mayor of jersey city and, again, beat the incumbe incumbent. part of what makes steven fullop seem like a rising star, bawhat makes him a high profile local politician, big things are expected, jersey city like newark

lautenberg died and chris christie needed to pick someone to take that u.s. senate seat, chris christie tapped jeffrey ciasa. when governor christie started his term as the chairman of the republican governor's association, david samson was among the group of close advisers who went to arizona with chris christie as a sign that samson is seen as important to christie's potential run for national office. david samson and chris christie are very close, when it came out in those subpoenaed documents, david samson is helping us to retaliate. that was a big deal in terms of how high the scandal goes and how close the scandal gets to chris christie. and on the day christie apologized and said he was humiliated and called his deputy chief of staff stupid and the other people involved were stupid and deceitful and showed poor judgment. on that day, when everyone has seen the david samson is helping us to retaliate e-mail, he took a different tone when talking about him. >> i think general samson put out a statement yesterday that he had no knowledge of this i interviewed him yesterday. i am con

instance, working in the u.s. attorney's office or other federal investigative agencies to make sure we have the right type of guidance so we make sure we are making the right decisions. >> in terms of what's going to happen next, obviously, in the documentation that was released at the end of last week, a lot of people in the governor's top tier staff are mentioned wage in those e-mails. those of us guessing where you are going next are expecting subpoenas from people like bridget anne kelly. can you tell us if that will be the next step? >> they will be zaeef receiving subpoenas. they will be subpoenas into the governor's office. there will be a lot of subpoenas. i don't want to surprise people by telling them tonight, but they're going to be coming and we're going to be looking at figuring out where that chain of e-mails came from. i mean, you've pointed out. others have pointed out. you don't get an e-mail, it's time for traffic problems at ft. lee unless there was a discussion beforehand, somebody higher than you made you believe you had the authority. right now, we don't know who

u.s. surveillance policies, something very out of the ordinary happened concerning the court. one of chief justice john roberts' old appointments to the fisa court, this man, john bates, was asked by chief justice john roberts to write a letter on this issue to policy makers, specifically to democratic senator dianne feinstein, who chairs the intelligence committee. in the letter, this judge argues that basically we on the fisa court don't need your stinking privacy advocate. the secret fisa court shouldn't have a person arguing against the government. the fisa court shouldn't have a person there representing the privacy interests of regular folks against the government's? he says that would be unnecessary and counterproductive. it was substantially hamper the work of the courts. no independent privacy advocate needed here, says the man tapped by john roberts to make an appeal on behalf of the court on this issue. that very unusual letter, playing a very unusual role in the tripartide split american government, that letter went out earlier this week, just before president obama's

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instance, working in the u.s. attorney's office or other federal investigative agencies to make sure that we have the right type of guidance so that we make sure we're making the right decisions. >> in terms of what's going to happen next, obviously in the documentation that was released at the end of last week, a lot of people in the governor's top-tier staff are mentioned directly many tho lly in those . those of us guessing where you're going next are expecting subpoenas from people like bridget anne kelly. can you tell us if that's the next step? >> there are going it to be subpoenas as early as thursday. after the assembly meet, the committee meets then we'll issue those subpoenas. there are going to be subpoenas into the governor's office. i don't want to surprise people by telling them tonight. they're going to be coming. and we're going to be looking at figuring out where the chain of e-mails came from. i mean, you've pointed out, others have pointed out, you don't get an e-mail "it's time for traffic problems in ft. lee" unless there was some discussion before j beforehand.