Ex-PA big testifies vs. fellow lane brains

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s man at the Port Authority admitted Monday that he and a handful of cronies plotted ways to “maximize” the traffic turmoil in Fort Lee — and toned down their original plan to close all three lanes only when they were told it would lead to vehicle crashes.

David Wildstein, the government’s key witness, testified in the “Bridgegate” trial that he wanted to create “as big a traffic jam as possible,” and that meant closing all three approach roads to the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee in September 2013.

Wildstein and his PA boss, Bill Baroni — who, along with former Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly, is on trial for allegedly arranging the lane closures as political payback — ditched that idea only after the agency’s chief engineer warned them that it would in- crease the risk of crashes.

They settled on closing two access lanes instead, but Baroni suggested they wait until September to execute the plan because “the end of August was a time when people were typically away,” Wildstein said.

Wildstein told Newark federal court jurors that the notion of us-

He agreed it was a potential leverage point in the future. David Wildstein (left) on Bill Baroni’s role in Bridgegate

ing the traffic lanes as a cudgel came to him back in 2011 during a PA event at the bridge.

Standing on the bridge, he noticed three approach lanes reserved for Fort Lee traffic and realized “this could be a leverage point” with the borough’s Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich, Wildstein testified. Then he mentioned the idea to Baroni.

“He responded that he had seen what I saw and he told me that he agreed it was a potential leverage point in the future,” Wildstein said.

But it wasn’t until 2013 — after Sokolich had declined to endorse Christie — that the plan was put into action as political retribution, Wildstein explained.

Wildstein said he later told Kelly about his idea, and, in August 2013, Kelly sent him an e-mail saying, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

Wildstein has pleaded guilty for his role in the plot.