No other record of correspondence between the men exists, governor's office says
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Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, right, said he met with Gov. Chris Christie, and Christie made public a copy of his calendar Monday, which revealed he had a private dinner with Ailes and his wife, but said no other documentation of correspondence between the two existed.TRENTON — Reversing course in the face of a lawsuit, Gov. Chris Christie’s office Monday made public a copy of his calendar showing he met with Roger Ailes, the Fox News chief, for a private dinner last year.
But that simple notation — which the Christie administration had refused to release — is the only official record of the meeting that exists, and there is no record of any correspondence between the two men, the governor’s office said.
The disclosure is an attempt by the Christie administration to head off a brewing legal battle over what records the governor can keep confidential.
Earlier this year Gawker, a New York City-based blog that chronicles celebrities and the media, requested any correspondence between Christie and Ailes, as well as records related to their dinner meeting on Sept. 11, 2010.
The governor’s office denied the request, saying the records can be kept secret under executive privilege. So Gawker teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union and filed a lawsuit appealing the denial Monday.
"A strong public interest exists in knowing whether the executive in charge of the nation’s most-watched cable news channel is acting as a political consultant to a prospective Republican presidential candidate," the lawsuit says.
New York magazine reported in May that Ailes encouraged Christie to run for president, an assertion Ailes denied.
Shortly after the suit was filed, Christie’s office released a "supplemental response" to Gawker’s records request. The new letter said the administration was not backing down from its definition of executive privilege, but officially disclosed the meeting with Ailes took place.
Christie, who was in Iowa for a meeting on education, said he expects the lawsuit to be dismissed.
"There are no other documents between me and Mr. Ailes at all," he said. "My understanding now from my staff is that they’ve been contacted and told the suit can be dropped."
Frank Corrado, a Wildwood lawyer working with the ACLU, said his organization and Gawker would withdraw the lawsuit if the Christie administration would certify in court that the calendar entry was indeed the only document that would fit Gawker’s expansive records request.
But Corrado said he was still concerned about the administration’s previous blanket denial, saying there needs to be clear rules as to when a governor can invoke executive privilege to keep records confidential.
"If the governor can just waive the privilege wand and say, ‘I’m not going to disclose this,’ that’s not enough," he said. "A court needs to say, ‘Here are the standards, here are parameters.’ "
Questions of executive privilege also dogged Christie’s predecessor, Jon Corzine. Republicans went to court seeking e-mails between Corzine and Carla Katz, a former girlfriend and state labor leader. An appeals court said in January 2009 that the e-mails did not need to be made public.
"The release of confidential e-mails may have a chilling effect on the governor’s ability or willingness to solicit advice, or to accept unsolicited advice in the future," the judges said.
The state Supreme Court declined to take the case, handing Corzine a legal victory.
"The cases in New Jersey have tended to favor executive privilege," said William Castner, Corzine’s former counsel.
John Cook, the Gawker staff writer who filed the records request with Christie’s office, said the administration’s original claim of executive privilege showed the governor appears to be treating the media executive as an adviser.
"That’s what executive privilege is there for, to ensure that executives get unvarnished, accurate advice," Cook said. "If that’s what he’s claiming his conversations with Roger Ailes are about, there’s no other way to interpret it other than to say Roger Ailes is providing confidential advice to him."
Ginger Gibson contributed to this report.