Officials in Hoboken say they will not grant interviews to a lawyer for Gov. Chris Christie or give him documents regarding the mayor's claim that two Christie cabinet members told her last year that the city's post-Sandy aid would be linked to her support for a real-estate project.

Mayor Dawn Zimmer (L) of Hoboken with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R)
Mayor Dawn Zimmer of Hoboken with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (Andrew Burton, Getty Images)
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Randy Mastro, who was hired by the state to steer the governor's office through investigations by a legislative committee and federal authorities looking into political retribution in the administration, made the requests to the mayor of Hoboken, her chief of staff, spokesman and two city council members last week.

A lawyer for the mayor, Dawn Zimmer, denied the request on her behalf, and a lawyer for the city did the same for the others. The requests and the responses were first reported by The Record newspaper (http://bit.ly/1kv3N42 ).

Among the requests from Mastro were all the documents Hoboken officials have provided to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the case. "The Governor's Office takes the allegations recently made by Hoboken Mayor Zimmer very seriously" Mastro says in his request.

The Hoboken officials are skeptical.

"We question whether it's appropriate for the Governor's Office, in essence, to be investigating itself, particularly when an investigation of the same subject matter is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office," Zimmer's lawyer, Gerald Krovatin said in his letter. He said Zimmer is cooperating with the federal investigation.

The exchange of letters comes as the Christie administration has taken aim at Zimmer, sending allies of the governor an email directing them to news articles about the mayor. In the articles, others suggested Zimmer used government jobs to reward political allies and that she had the city stop doing business with one city Sandy contractor when he announced he was running for the city council.

(Copyright 2014 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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