Feds: Christie told about plan to close traffic lanes
NEWARK, N.J. — A federal prosecutor has told jurors that a witness will testify that Republican Gov. Chris Christie was told about a plan to close traffic lanes near the George Washington Bridge as part of a political vendetta while the shutdown was happening, a claim Christie has contested for years.
The trial comes three years after gridlock paralyzed a town next to the busy bridge, which connects New Jersey and New York City, for four days. Prosecutors said two former Christie allies, Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly, had sought political revenge against Democratic Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, who didn’t endorse Christie for re-election.
Baroni was a top Christie appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs area bridges, tunnels and transit hubs. Kelly was Christie’s former chief of staff.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna told jurors yesterday that another Port Authority official, David Wildstein, who pleaded guilty in connection with the scandal last year, will testify he and Baroni made Christie aware of the plan during a Sept. 11 memorial in New York in 2013, three days after the gridlock started.
“The evidence will show that ... they bragged about the fact that there were traffic problems in Fort Lee and that Mayor Sokolich was not getting his calls returned,” Khanna said.
Christie has denied knowing about the scheme until well after it was carried out, and a taxpayerfunded report he commissioned absolved him of wrongdoing. He wasn’t charged in the federal investigation. A message left at his office seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned yesterday.
Christie, an unsuccessful candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, conceded last week that the bridge scandal was a factor in GOP nominee Donald Trump’s not picking him as a running mate.
Defense attorneys spent considerable time in their opening statements castigating Wildstein, a former political blogger and high school classmate of Christie who they called the governor’s hatchet man at the Port Authority.
They characterized him as a vulgar, power-smitten opportunist aiming to ride Christie’s coattails to Washington, D.C., at a time when Christie, about to easily win re-election in his heavily Democratic state, was seen as a top presidential hopeful.