Opening Statements Begin in Bridge Trial

The NY Times reports that the accusation came in the opening statements in the trial of two former Christie administration officials, Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni. Christie had said senior staff were not involved in that news event. Kelly is Christie’s former deputy chief of staff.

Baroni has claimed the realignment was part of a traffic study conceived and operated by David Wildstein, a Port Authority official who pleaded guilty in connection with the scandal past year.

Wildstein has pleaded guilty, signed a cooperation agreement with the government and will be the star witness in the case. Christie has said he barely met with Wildstein while he was governor, but in court, defense attorneys said the evidence will show Christie kept close tabs on Wildstein. “They were both talking to each other, talking what to do and how to do it”. Christie has repeatedly denied involvement.

Assistant US Attorney Vikas Khanna told jurors on Monday that a Port Authority official, David Wildstein, will testify that he and defendant Bill Baroni made Christie aware of the plan while they were attending September 11 commemorations in Manhattan.

Prosecutors will likely introduce emails and text messages between Kelly, Baroni and Wildstein in an effort to prove they deliberately arranged the lane closures as payback for Mayor Mark Sokolich.

Baroni and Kelly allegedly “bragged” to Christie about the fact that there were traffic problems in Fort Lee and that Sokolich was not getting his calls returned, prosecutors said in court according to Reilly. Opening statements from their attorneys are also expected Monday.

The siege ended only when Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority and an appointee of New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, ordered the lanes reopened on the fifth morning.

Chase Brush is a former PolitickerNJ reporter and NJ Spotlight editorial intern from North Jersey.

Wildstein told Sokolich, “So you’re the guy we have to be nice to”, Sokolich testified.

In November 2013, Christie was re-elected as governor with 60% of the vote.

She wasn’t responsible for policy, he said, and wasn’t making key decisions in Trenton or at the Port Authority. “Totally knew about it”, Trump told a crowd in Mount Pleasant. He’s “crazy”, “a freaky person”, “a habitual liar”. Baroni’s own defense sought to add “context evidence” to the story, painting the former assemblyman and state senator as a victim of the political bureaucracy that critics have accused the Port Authority of harboring in recent years.

In May, Wildstein pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy related to his role in incident.

Defence attorneys for the officials have long claimed that Christie was well aware of the strategy and that his aides were offered up as sacrifices to pay the political price.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman walked out of the courtroom after Baldassare’s comment.

“The GW Bridge, he knew about it”, Trump said during a rally last December.

“I’m sure it was a factor”, Christie said. He cost a fellow Republican who wanted to run for local office his spot on the primary ballot by throwing his petition in the trash, rather than submit it to the township clerk.

Baroni’s attorney told jurors Monday that Wildstein is a twisted, vindictive individual who is a habitual liar. Critchley said that his client’s famously blunt email – “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” – was the product of workplace “banter”, and her credulous belief that Wildstein had a plan to study Fort Lee’s traffic patterns. Bendul said when he upbraided Durando about the new traffic pattern that reduced three access lanes between Fort Lee and the bridge to one, Durando told him, “Have the mayor call Baroni”.

“It is a different world and we need to say out loud that those people who are radical, especially radical Islamic terrorists, need to be called out”.

“Of course, I will”, Christie told CNN.

Mayor Mark Sokolich heading into federal court on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016.