Witness: Christie told of Bridgegate scheme at 9/11 memorial
NEWARK — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was told that Fort Lee, N.J., was choking in traffic and that the panicking mayor was not getting his calls returned as the lane-closing plot unfolded at the George Washington Bridge in September 2013, the prosecution's chief witness testified Tuesday.
Bill Baroni, Christie's top executive appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge, and David Wildstein, Baroni's lieutenant at the agency, briefed the governor about the gridlock in Fort Lee as they attended a memorial service on the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in Manhattan, Wildstein testified.
“Were you and Mr. Baroni bragging?” asked assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Cortes.
“Yes, very much so,” said Wildstein.
Bridgegate: Plot to foul bridge traffic ID'd 2 years earlier
Why, the prosecutor continued.
“This was our 'one constituent,' ” Wildstein said, referring to a rule he followed that the only person who mattered at the Port Authority was the governor. “I was pleasing our one constituent. I was happy that he was happy.”
On the witness stand in federal court in Newark for a third day, Wildstein is testifying at the trial of two former allies of Christie: Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority, and Bridget Anne Kelly, the governor’s former deputy chief of staff.
Wildstein has said he is hopeful that his agreement to testify truthfully for the government will be rewarded with a sentence that does not include prison. He pleaded guilty last year to charges he conspired with Baroni and Kelly to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for refusing to endorse Christie’s 2013 re-election campaign.
Bridgegate trial: Christie taking heat from defense, prosecution
Last week, in his opening statement, a prosecutor said Wildstein and Baroni “bragged” to the governor on the third day of the lane closings that they had been done to “mess” with Sokolich because he had refused to endorse Christie.
At an event Tuesday at his State House office, Christie did not take questions from the media, but he gave a response to the accusations in federal court about his knowledge of the lane closures.
Prosecutors and Wildstein have contradicted Christie's repeated statements that he had no knowledge of the George Washington Bridge lane closures while they were going on in 2013.
Christie said Tuesday that there was "all kinds of stuff going on up in a courtroom in Newark.
Christie's team kept spreadsheet of favors done for mayors
"I have not and will not say anything differently than I've been saying since January 2014, no matter what is said up there.
"I had no knowledge prior to or during these lane realignments. I had no role in authorizing (it). I had no knowledge of it. And there has been no evidence ever put forward that I did.
"I want the people of New Jersey to know, that while this goes on up there, that the reason I am here and not there is because what I said in January of 2014 was true then, is true today, and it will never be proven to be anything but true,” he said. “So we all must endure what's going on up there ... but we will, because what we know is that from the moment all this became public, my one job was to make sure that I told the people of New Jersey the absolute truth.
"I have, I will continue to, and no matter what else anybody says, that will not change,” he said. “So just so you don't think that I'm living in an alternate universe, I didn't want to leave here without saying that."
Follow Salvador Rizzo on Twitter: @rizzoTK
Related:
Bridgegate: Mayor tried to discourage Christie visit
Bridgegate: Bridge manager held parking-lot meeting with police chief
Lawyers on both sides of Bridgegate trial paint Christie as central figure