Testimony: Christie pals OK’d gridlock, campaign chief knew

NEWARK, N.J. — A political revenge scheme to create traffic gridlock near the George Washington Bridge in 2013 was approved by two former allies of Republican Gov. Chris Christie who are on trial and shared with Christie’s then-campaign manager, the government’s key witness testified Monday.

David Wildstein also told jurors how he received the “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” email from Christie’s then-deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, on Aug. 13, 2013, about a month before the town next to the bridge was engulfed in four days of epic traffic jams. Kelly has previously said some of her emails and texts from that period were meant to be sarcastic and were taken out of context. But Wildstein told jurors Monday he assumed it meant it was time to put the scheme in action to punish Fort Lee’s Democratic mayor.