A few minutes ago, former NJ Education Commissioner Bret Schundler, fired a few days ago for "lying" to Governor Christie about events connected to the state's bungled Race to the Top funding for NJ schools, released documents he believes will set the record straight that he is telling the truth, and it is the governor who is not being truthful. From the chronology, comes this extraordinary quote. Schundler:
I have thought about the possibility that beyond my being a scapegoat for his misstatement, the Governor might be angry at me for not telling him the interview was videotaped. In my defense, I never believed I needed to say, 'Governor, stick to the truth, there's a videotape.' Perhaps I should have.
First is a 7-page written chronology which begins with the dizzying events of the last few days, including a press conference called to blame the Obama administration for the funding loss, in which the governor said something Schundler says the governor knew was not true. Next come emails between Schundler and Maria Comella, a spokewoman and top staffer to Christie. Next is a draft of a letter to US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, submitted to Christie Chief of Staff Richard Bagger. It makes, as he says, points he knew the Governor's office wanted, but does not include a claim that Schundler's team provided the federal interviewers with the data NJ's application was missing. Finally come two rewrites Bagger did of Schundler's Duncan letter. In the first, you will see that an assertion has been added - apparently untrue - that Schundler provided those missing figures to the federal interviewers. In the second, Bagger has removed the false claim that Schundler provided those missing numbers to the interviewers, because Schundler had insisted that was not true. Schundler says he transferred Bagger's second rewrite to his letterhead, signed and emailed it to Washington, following up with a pdf of that letter.
This is all breaking now. We haven't had much time to sift through it, but I wanted to get it all up now to you raw, so you could begin to read it for yourself. Schundler provided all these documents, and we uploaded them from the first place we saw them, Asbury Park Press:
Schundler's Chronology of Events
Schundler-Comella Email Exchange
Schundler: My Draft Letter to Duncan
Schundler: Bagger's First Rewrite of my Duncan Letter
Schundler: Bagger's Second Rewrite of my Duncan Letter |
