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"  A new report issued by Governor Chris Christie&amp;#039;s lawyers revealed that\u2014surprise\u2014the New Jersey politician is not to blame in that whole George-Washington-Bridge-traffic-jam-revenge-plot fiasco. For the &amp;quot;comprehensive and exhaustive&amp;quot;\u2014as Christie&amp;#039;s lead lawyer put it\u2014internal investigation, the team interviewed 70 people and looked over 250,000 documents, including information from staffers&amp;#039; work and private email accounts, cellphones and telephone records. Who is to blame? The report points fingers at two people: David Wildstein, a longtime Christie ally, who appears to have had some sort of vendetta against Fort Lee&amp;#039;s access lanes and who the lawyer alleges held a &amp;quot;bizarre personal and political animus&amp;quot; against Christie, and Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie&amp;#039;s former deputy chief of staff, who sent that first incriminating e-mail, and the report points out, just broke up with her boyfriend. The report states that Kelly wrote that e-mail just after her relationship with another ex-Christie staffer, Bill Stepien, &amp;quot;had cooled, apparently at Stepien&amp;#039;s behest.&amp;quot; It goes on to say that &amp;quot;events in Kelly&amp;#039;s personal life may have had some bearing on her subjective motivations and state of mind.&amp;quot; Because obviously the first thing you think after being dumped is &amp;quot;you know what would probably make me feel better? &amp;#039;traffic problems in Fort Lee.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; The &amp;quot;findings&amp;quot; of the report are not only one-sided, they&amp;#039;re downright offensive. While Kelly might be to blame for much of Bridgegate, painting her as a snubbed woman whose feelings got in the way of her job is more than just sexist, it&amp;#039;s lazy. Like ending a movie with an alien invasion or wrapping up a TV series by revealing it was all a dream, saying a woman&amp;#039;s emotional distress is the root of a major political scandal is a diversion tactic, and a weak one at that.   &amp;quot;It reads more like a novel than a work of fact,&amp;quot; Assemblyman John Wisniewski, co-chair of the legislative panel investigating the lane closures, said of the details of Kelly and Stepien&amp;#039;s relationship in the report. &amp;quot;It seems like it&amp;#039;s a rush to judgment to come to a conclusion to provide the governor with a talking point so he can attempt to put this behind him. But the report has factual holes.&amp;quot; Christie&amp;#039;s lawyer contends the details of the relationship were included because &amp;quot;it might explain a lack of communication between the two of them during a critical period.&amp;quot; But it reads more as a salacious bit of gossip to focus on and an attempt to paint Kelly as a weak, emotional, volatile woman. Kelly might be guilty of a lot when it comes to the lane closure scandal, but she isn&amp;#039;t guilty for being a woman. Because would the report read the same if she was a man? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a18564/christie-scandal-report-blames-dumped-female-staffer/?click=hprc>