Former Port Authority chairman David Samson was expected to plead guilty Thursday in connection with an investigation that has focused on Samson’s behavior as chairman of the agency, according to NBC4 NY. Federal prosecutors began subpoenaing records about the flight from both United Airlines and the Port Authority more than a year ago and an internal investigation by United led to the ouster of its chief executive officer, Jeff Smisek, and two other senior executives in September 2015. United flew half-empty flights between New Jersey and SC, where Samson had a vacation home. None of them has been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
Advertisement
The former Port Authority chairman and Christie ally was being investigated for his role in flights out of Newark.
Samson was forced to step down from the Port Authority in March 2014 in the wake of allegations that he took advantage of his position to benefit himself and his law firm clients.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, the Port Authority’s inspector general and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have scheduled a news conference for after the court proceeding.
The U.S. Attorney’s office, though, later issued subpoenas to the Port Authority and United Airlines in connection with a direct flight from New Jersey to SC that began in September 2012 when Samson was then chairman of the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey-which manages Newark Liberty International Airport. The “Chairman’s Flight” came to light in the federal investigation of the George Washington Bridge closures known as BridgeGate.
The bridge investigation, combined with an earlier audit that called the Port Authority “challenged and dysfunctional”, trained a spotlight on the powerful agency and eventually led to questions about Samson’s interactions with United Airlines.
Advertisement
United ended the nonstop flights between Newark Liberty International Airport, which is run by the Port Authority and where United sought improvements, and Columbia Metropolitan Airport near Samson’s vacation home shortly after Samson left the government body in 2014. Around the same time, Chicago-based United was pressing for concessions from the agency, including a new hangar at the Newark airport, rent reductions and a commuter rail-line extension that would connect the airport directly to lower Manhattan.
