Bridgegate didn’t go anywhere, so it appears that a new line of attack has been opened on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as he prepares a possible run for the presidency. The as yet un-gated story revolves around a prosecutor who was fired more than four years ago. He claims that indictments against two “Christie supporters” were tossed that year and that he complained about it, leading to his dismissal.

Federal law enforcement officials have launched a criminal investigation of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and members of his administration, pursuing allegations the governor and his staff broke the law when they quashed grand jury indictments against Christie supporters, International Business Times has learned.

Two criminal investigators from the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday interviewed the man who leveled those charges, Bennett Barlyn. He was fired from the Hunterdon County prosecutor’s office in August 2010, and subsequently brought a whistleblower lawsuit against the Christie administration, claiming he had been punished for objecting to the dismissal of the indictments of the governor’s supporters for a range of corrupt activities.

Barlyn told IBTimes that he met with the federal investigators at his Pennsylvania home for more than an hour on Wednesday afternoon. He said they specifically focused on why Christie’s then-attorney general, Paula Dow, had moved to expunge the indictments. The investigators are examining what state and federal laws may have been broken in the process.

One reason that I’m taking this with a grain of salt for now is that the coverage of this story (well down below the lede) describes the investigation as being “in its initial phase” and there was no determination that there would even be charges filed. With that little to go on, what we appear to have is one guy who got fired and than went after his bosses. Is there something to it? Possibly, but it’s far too early to know. Still, it’s never too early to get the press involved and see if there isn’t something to throw against the wall which might stick to the point where it could drive some big donor money away from Christie.

The timing couldn’t be better for the Democrats, since Christie has only just returned from what looked like a very poorly handled trip to Europe. What was designed to be a simple bump to his foreign policy credentials quickly devolved into exactly the wrong sort of publicity at this stage of the campaign. It went badly enough that the Governor wound up refusing to even talk to the press crew he specifically invited along to cover his journey.

This new story may wind up disappearing if the allegations don’t hold water, but given the timing it’s already doing its job for Christie’s opponents.