“Yeah, I have absolutely no reason to believe that”, Christie said.
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“I’ve made it very clear to everyone on my senior staff that if they had any knowledge about this that they need to come forward and tell me about it and they’ve all assured me that they don’t”, he said.
According to a new court filing, a former Christie aide texted to a colleague that the governor “flat out lied” at a 2013 news conference about Bill Stepien and other staffers’ involvement.
A transcript of the text is contained in court filings submitted late Tuesday night by attorneys representing Bill Baroni, who faces trial next month for allegedly helping to orchestrate the September 2013 lane closure.
In two separate investigations and in the U.S. Attorney’s continuing inquiry, Christie has not been linked to the traffic scheme that prosecutors say was political payback over the Fort Lee mayor’s failure to endorse him for re-election in 2013.
Christie’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In court documents filed Wednesday morning, a senior aide of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie texted that the governor “lied” as he claimed during a December 2013 news conference that his campaign manager wasn’t involved in the George Washington Bridge scandal.
Sheridan responded that he was, in fact, listening to the governor’s answer, and reassured that her, “Gov.is doing fine”. “Yes. But he lied. And if emails are found with the subpoena or (campaign) emails are uncovered in discovery.if it comes to that.it could be bad”.
The document said it “appears to be clear” that Renna deleted the texts and did not disclose their existence when she testified under oath before lawmakers. A month later, the “time for some traffic problems” email revealing the conspiracy was released.
As a result of those admissions, Baroni and Kelly were each charged with nine counts in a scheme to misuse Port Authority resources to facilitate and hide the cause of traffic problems in Fort Lee in September of 2013.
In 2014, Renna went before the state legislature and denied knowledge of Bridgegate.
Christine Renna, who worked under deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly, texted: “Are you listening?”
Stepien’s attorney, Kevin Marino, said it was “categorically false and irresponsible” to implicate his client in the bridge affair “based on a text message that has been in the government’s possession for years”.
Asked about Stepien, who ran Christie’s reelection campaign, the governor said Stepien “has assured me the same thing”. He was not questioned about the breaking news on Bridgegate and instead fielded questions about topics like “nip slips” during the Olympic beach volleyball tournament.
Baroni, a former high-ranking Christie appointee at the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey the agency that operates the bridge and Kelly are charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and civil rights violations. “There’s nothing new to talk about”.
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The details of the texts came in a filing by Baroni’s lawyers seeking to exclude certain evidence from trial.
