CHRISTIE'S 'WOLF'
Bridge fixer got ‘Pulp’ moniker
We knew he loved Springsteen and traffic jams — but apparently, Chris Christie is a big fan of Quentin Tarantino, too.
The New Jersey governor was so pleased with the Bridgegate traffic nightmare that he dubbed the crony who engineered the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures “The Wolf ” — after the cool-as-a-cucumber fixer from ”Pulp Fiction,” a key witness testified Wednesday.
“He referred to me as Winston Wolf from ‘Pulp Fiction,’ ” former Port Authority exec David Wildstein told Newark federal court jurors, referring to Harvey Keitel’s no-nonsense role in the 1994 Tarantino classic.
Wildstein said Christie gave him the nickname at the 2013 9/11 commemoration while chuckling with aides over the thousands of motorists left stranded by the act of political payback.
Keitel’s tuxedo-clad The Wolf character was sent to clean up a bloody mess created by hit men played by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in the flick. “I’m Winston Wolf. I solve problems,” the character said in the film.
Wildstein testified that his movie moniker stuck, with Bridgegate defendant Bill Baroni texting him a photo of Keitel’s character about two months later, as Baroni was headed to testify about the lane closures.
“I understood it to be that he was going to Trenton to fix the problem,” Wildstein said on Day 4 of his testimony.
The feds’ star witness said he responded with a text saying “$1” — another silver-screen reference to the bet behind the plot of “Trading Places,” the 1983 Eddie Murphy-Dan Aykroyd comedy.
“It meant that if Mr. Baroni was able to fix the problem, I would give him $1,” Wildstein said.
Wildstein, who’s testifying under a plea deal with prosecutors, has admitted to snarling traffic to the GWB to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing Christie’s 2013 re-election bid.
According to e-mail records, he received the infamous Aug. 13, 2013, message from Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly — who’s on trial with Baroni — that said, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” to which Wildstein responded: “Got it.”
Wildstein testified Wednesday that he told both Christie’s spokesman and chief counsel about the motive in early December 2013 and was told the information would be passed along to the chief of staff.
He also said then-chief counsel Charles McKenna told him he would have to resign his PA job due to the intensifying Bridgegate firestorm.
But Wildstein said assurances from top Christie aides Bill Stepien and Michael DuHaime led him to believe he was still on Team Christie.
“I would relax for a little while and then play some role in advancing Gov. Christie’s political future,” he testified. “I had been told . . . that I was still on the governor’s team and I was still valued as a member of the team.”