An unpaid personal assistant/manservant who works for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has deleted or failed to turn over potentially self-incriminating emails and text messages related to a criminal case, lawyers for defendants in the case say.
The accusation is particularly ironic given the attacks that Trump has made on presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for deleting emails that she sent and received while she was secretary of state.
The assistant/beleaguered henchman, current New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, is suspected by some of having conspired to create massive traffic jams in the city of Fort Lee in order to retaliate against its mayor for not endorsing him during a re-election campaign. Attorneys for two former Christie associates who are being prosecuted in the case say the governor/errand boy is, in effect, trying to make their clients the fall guys for his own actions. WNYC reports that these attorneys have filed briefs critical of Christie for failing to produce evidence relevant to the case:
Gov. Chris Christie’s cell phone, text messages and emails from three separate accounts are missing or have been destroyed, Bridgegate defendants allege in a pair of explosive briefs filed late Monday in federal court in New Jersey … “President Nixon’s tapes were not immune from a subpoena,” wrote Michael Baldassare, the attorney for defendant Bill Baroni, in his brief. “Neither is Governor Christie’s phone.”
Christie does not appear to have responded to the briefs’ allegations. The trial of the two defendants is scheduled for September, which coincidentally is also when Donald Trump is scheduled to berate Chris Christie at length in front of several other staffers because Christie spilled Taco Bell hot sauce on the campaign copy machine.
