(CNN) - The New Jersey state Assembly and Senate will announce Tuesday that the two legislative bodies will form one committee to investigate allegations that Gov. Chris Christie's administration engaged in abuse of power, sources told CNN's Dana Bash and Shimon Prokupecz.
Both houses already had their own investigatory committees but decided to create one joint committee for the rest of the investigation.
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The committee will have subpoena power and use the special counsel already hired by the Assembly committee, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Reid Schar.
The Assembly committee issued 20 subpoenas last week, and sources say those subpoenas will still stand under the new committee.
The two houses decided to merge their investigations in order to avoid sending two subpoenas to the same people and delay the investigation or tie things up in court.
The 12-member panel will include eight Democrats and four Republicans. Assemblyman John Wisniewski and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, both Democrats, will co-chair the committee. They each served as the leaders in their respective houses' investigatory committees.
No need to waste resources when the sole focus of these investigations is the Christie Administration. Hopefully by merging the committees they'll be able to focus in like a laser to testimony and evidence.
Christie tried to kill the ant by using a machine-gun but it never died. He used almost 2 hours and took questions but it seems nothing did help so far. What else will he use? Press the nuclear bomb button?
Lots of overlap no doubt. Much easier to keep one scorecard.
Uh oh 8 dems and 4 repos..... I can't wait to read about the deck being stacked against him. It's absolutely hilarious whenever a republican starts playing the victim.
Malory Archer
Lots of overlap no doubt. Much easier to keep one scorecard.
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Yeah. Instead of multiple multiple subpoenas being issued by multiple groups for the same people and documents, now there will be less chance of that happening.
The two houses decided to merge their investigations in order to avoid sending two subpoenas to the same people and delay the investigation or tie things up in court.
Sounds like it's going to be raining subpoenas over the Garden State .......
Man, just think... if this were an investigation into a Democrat doing similar things, it would already be over. Republicant investigators have a tendency to try and convict people based on the allegations alone and without any supporting evidence... in fact, sometimes in spite of exonerating evidence.
Not one scintilla of exonerating evidence has been offered up yet... unless you count yelling 'LIAR' at everyone as a proper defense, I don't believe they have much of a plan formulated as of yet.