One of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's closest friends and long-time mentors pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday in connection with a sprawling scandal that has engulfed the Christie Administration.
David Samson, 76, Christie’s former appointee as chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was charged with one felony count of bribery for demanding United Airlines executives create a special flight route to his vacation home in exchange for favorable treatment from the agency, which operates Newark Liberty International Airport.
Samson was once the chief law enforcement in New Jersey, serving as Attorney General. He could have spent 10 years in prison but by pleading guilty he faces no more than a two-year sentence and as little as probation without jail time. Samson is not cooperating with the investigation, and so the sentence will be determined by a judge in October. After entering the plea on $100,000 bail, he took a deep sigh and left the courthouse with no comment to reporters.
Also charged in the scheme is Jamie Fox, a former transportation commissioner in the Christie Administration who at the time the scheme was allegedly hatched was a lobbyist for United Airlines. He was charged with conspiring to commit bribery.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman also announced that United Airlines -- the largest airline in the world -- will pay a $2.25 million fine as part of an agreement to cooperate with prosecutors. Jeffrey Smisek, the former chief executive officer of United, previously lost his job over the deal, but has a $35 million exit package, which includes free first class flights for life. Two other United employees were also dismissed in the wake of the scandal.
"This kind of case shakes public confidence in our institutions of government when people who are so accomplished, and who have occupied so many positions of public trust, misuse their authority to get something for themselves," Fishman said at a press conference in Newark. “It’s a betrayal of our trust and what we have the right to expect from those in public life and it makes the job of every honest public employee just that much harder."
The charges center on what Samson and his associates called "the chairman’s flight" and "Samson Air" -- a non-stop United route that was added just to please Samson when he was chairman of the Port Authority. The flight was frequently only half full, even as the average “passenger load” for profitable flight routes is about 80 percent. It departed from Newark Airport on Thursdays and returned on Mondays, making it inconvenient for most business passengers, but convenient for Samson.
Days after Samson resigned from the Port Authority in the wake of the Bridgegate scandal, United cancelled the route.
Samson admitted in court that he took the flight 27 times -- even in January 2014, as the Bridgegate scandal was embroiling the administration and putting more focus on Christie and the Port Authority. Christie even visited Samson in Aiken at least once.
Samson, during his guilty plea, admitted that he asked United to add the route from Newark to Columbia, S.C., in exchange for favorable treatment. He acknowledged that he had removed an item related to United Airlines from the agenda of a Port Authority board meeting in order to pressure the airline. In an exchange of emails between Samson and Fox released today, the two are shown agreeing to pressure United to create the flight route -- and create it quickly.
At one point Fox emailed Samson: "We have them dancing."
Samson emailed back: "Good. Let them dance — to my tune."
At another point Samson discussed the negotiations, then added: "I hate myself."
In a statement Fox's attorney, Michael Critchley, said Fox "understood the arrangement was fully vetted and completely appropriate." He said that Fox was "caught in the middle."
The flight began in September 2012, and continued as Samson negotiated key deals for United, including arranging for the PATH train to go to Newark Airport and lowering United's flight fees by tens of millions of dollars a year.
Until his downfall, Samson was a named partner in one of New Jersey's most powerful firms, Wolff & Samson, which earned millions lobbying the Christie Administration for private clients and representing state government in legal matters. Unlike those charged in the Bridgegate scandal, whom Christie had characterized as "rogue employees," Samson has been a friend and adviser to Christie since 2001, when Christie was appointed U.S. Attorney for New Jersey at about the same time that Samson became state attorney general. The two prosecutors, who are about two decades apart in age, grew close, at one point getting special police protection because the Latin Kings street gang threatened to kill both of them.
They developed what Christie himself has described as a father-son relationship.
Samson chaired Christie’s transition team after he was elected governor in 2009 and was the master of ceremonies at the governor’s inaugural ceremony. Samson served a variety of informal roles in Christie’s first term -- developing policy, strategizing on appointments and accompanying Christie on political trips around the country as he built a national profile toward a presidential candidacy.
As chairman of the Port Authority, Samson looked out for the governor's political interests. "We serve one client," Samson told associates. "Chris Christie."
Samson’s role in Christie’s orbit drew scrutiny following the Bridgegate scandal in 2013. The case centered on the two top staffers at the Port Authority, Bill Baroni and David Wildstein, both of whom worked closely with Samson. Baroni and Wildstein were later charged with closing lanes to the George Washington Bridge, which the Port Authority oversees, in order to create a traffic jam in a town where the mayor opposed Christie.
On the day the lanes were reopened by Port Authority officials from New York, Wildstein sent an email to Baroni expressing anger at the interference: "Samson helping us retaliate.”
But even after that email was revealed—even after Wildstein, Baroni and others were expelled from Christie’s team—the governor stood by his mentor, defending him in public and dining with him in private.
It was only after Samson quit his post as part of what was described as a long-planned transition that the "chairman's flight" scandal surfaced.
The bribery conviction stems from a Sept. 13, 2011, dinner at Novita, an Italian restaurant near Gramercy Park and close to the Port Authority’s former offices. The dinner was attended by Samson, Smisek, Baroni, Fox, and two former United Airlines executives who were fired in connection with the investigation.
According to the plea deal, at the dinner Samson complained openly to Smisek about his difficulty getting to his weekend home in Aiken, S.C., near Columbia. The city had once been served by direct flights, but they had been discontinued. Samson continued to privately and vehemently pressure United, through Fox.
In December 2011, Fox notified Samson the deal had been consummated. "You're the best," Samson wrote.
The flight launched in September 2012. Over the next two years, Smisek and Fox showered Port Authority executives with dinners and lunches. The airline held a special fundraiser in Chicago for Christie’s campaign for re-election, the first-ever such event for United.
In August 2013, Smisek, Samson and Christie met in Trenton. Weeks later, Baroni began to implement a series of steps to arrange for lowering United’s fees at Newark airport.
United had invested heavily in Newark, rather than LaGuardia or Kennedy Airports in New York City. But the fees were still higher at Newark because of a complex formula, infuriating the airline and its executives.
Baroni and Samson signaled they were willing to go along with United, even though the arrangement would deprive the cash-strapped Port Authority of tens of millions of dollars a year that could have been spent on airport improvements.
In November 2013, United sent Baroni an email memorializing the agreement and outlining further steps to implement the lowered fees.
But that deal never came to fruition.
At almost the exact same time the Port Authority, Trenton, and United were furiously hammering out a deal, top Christie aides were closing down lanes of the George Washington Bridge to retaliate against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who had chosen not to endorse Christie’s re-election.
Through the fall of that year, journalists and later legislators began to shine a spotlight on the Port Authority, which maintained the lane closures had been the result of a “traffic study.”
But that explanation soon evaporated, and Baroni and his No. 2 man, Wildstein, were forced to resign. The New Jersey Assembly then released the now-infamous email “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” from Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly.
Christie fired Kelly, but when grilled by reporters, he stood steadfast by Samson. Even still, Samson continued to be the focus of damaging news reports and ultimately resigned.
United returned to the Port Authority, demanding the deal to lower its fees at Newark Airport be honored. But those who had been party to it were no longer at the agency.
The fees were never lowered.