Another liar in the Justice Department

The U.S. Attorney here in New Jersey is Chris Christie -- the guy who brought a public investigation down on Bob Menedez (our junior Senator, a Democrat) in the middle of his Senate campaign. That investigation turned up nothing. Meanwhile, it turns out he's been lying about whether and when his name got on and then removed from the attorney firing list. Here's the story from Blue Jersey:

The Star Ledger, Washington Post and New York Times all reported that Christie learned that he had been on the list to be fired but had been removed in March during a single phone call. Tom Moran in the Star Ledger included details that Christie was by a pool with his family on vacation in Florida when he was e-mailed to call in, and went inside the room to make the call. His reaction in March was "completely stunned" (NYT - 5/18), "completely shocked" (WaPo - 5/17), and "speechless" (SL - 5/18).

But in a recent Daily Record editorial board, and we have confirmed this with someone who was in the room, Chris Christie told a completely different story. According to this version, Christie was told on the phone in December 2006 that he was on the list and it wasn't until January 2007 he learned on another call that he was off the list.

This is not a case of someone being confused, or misremembering a few facts about something that happened a long time ago. Every specific of the story -- how he found out, when he found out, how many calls it took, what state he was in -- is different in the two versions.

This is a case of a US Attorney lying at least once, and maybe twice since we can't rule out that neither story is the truth. Given that the whole US Attorney firing scandal has been driven by lies and misdirection, having another player in the scandal lying to the public and media is a big deal.