Att’y calls no-show gov a coward
“WHERE IS Chris Christie?” a defense attorney mockingly cried out in Newark Federal Court on Monday, lambasting the New Jersey governor as a “coward” and a “goon” who dared not take the stand to challenge testimony that he was instrumental in the Bridgegate scandal.
Michael Critchley, who is representing former Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly, said in three hours of closing arguments that all the governor had to do was walk into the courtroom with “little gubernatorial footsteps,” put his “gubernatorial hand on the Bible” and call his client a liar.
“She challenged one of the most important men in the country. She dared him!” Critchley said. “Chris Christie where are you?” Critchley barked before listing other high-ranking Christie associates who also did not testify.
“You know what called? Cowards!” he said.
The government never called Christie as a witness. In a rebuttal, prosecutors said Critchley’s attacks were merely an attempt to distract the jury from “devastating” evidence against Kelly. Critchley, prosecutors noted, could have also called Christie to the stand.
Following the remarks, the 12-person jury began deliberations in the case against Kelly and former Port Authority executive Bill Baroni.
Kelly testified in her own defense during the six-week trial, saying she had discussed a traffic study with lane closures from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge with Christie before they were implemented. She said she also discussed the closures, which caused four days of traffic hell in Fort Lee, with Christie while they were underway in September 2013.
“We put Bridget Kelly on the stand and said, ‘I dare you, you most important people in the world,’ ” Critchley said.
“Is that too much to ask, to ask them to come in?”
Kelly testified she felt as if she was living in an “alternate universe” as Christie’s closest aides began forgetting key conversations about the lane closures.
“Bridget is the odd person out. The inner circle, they know what the code is: Chris Christie knows nothing,” Critchley said.
It was ridiculous to think Kelly was the architect of a coverup that, according to testimony, involved not only Christie but Gov. Cuomo as well, Critchley said.
“This coverup had fingerprints from New York and New Jersey. From Cuomo on down,” Critchley said. “It’s all being driven at the top.”
Cuomo has strongly denied involvement in the Bridgegate affair. Christie says he knew nothing about the closures before or during their implementation and that’s did not try to cover them up.
Critchley portrayed his client as a single mother of four petrified by a foulmouthed boss prone to nasty outbursts.
“It’s not nice to be a human piñata, emotionally or physically,” Critchley said.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna told the jury it would be a mistake to see Kelly as helpless.
“She wants you to think she’s a victim of the governor’s office instead of an active participant in the culture of the governor’s office,” Khanna said. Kelly and Baroni face nine counts related to the lane closures, which the government says were political punishment aimed at the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for refusing to endorse Christie’s reelection. Both said they believed the closures were part of a legitimate traffic study.
Khanna revisited the evidence against both defendants, telling the jury that Baroni gave false testimony to a New Jersey legislative committee regarding the closures. Kelly texted she was “smiling” when informed of kids bound for school stuck in traffic.
“Not only did they execute this scheme, they delighted in it,” Khanna said.
Former Port Authority official David Wildstein, who already pleaded guilty for his role in the lane closures, testified for eight days against Baroni and Kelly under a cooperation agreement with the government. Numerous witnesses described Wildstein as manipulative and abusive.