A text message sent from aide Christine Renna to a Christie campaign worker in December 2013 while Christie was telling reporters at a press conference that no one on his staff knew anything about the lane closings contradicted the governor.
Advertisement
Stepien’s lawyer, Kevin Marino, on Wednesday called the notion Stepien was involved “categorically false and irresponsible”.
“Yes”, Renna wrote. “But he lied”. And if emails are found with the subpoena or [Christie campaign] emails are uncovered in discovery if it comes to that it could be bad. Christie is also widely suspected to be angling for a position in Trump’s future cabinet.
Christie disputed Renna’s assertion after a radio appearance in NY.
“I absolutely dispute it”, he said. “It’s ridiculous. It’s nothing new. There’s nothing new to talk about”, Christie told the Associated Press, regarding the new texts. The governor pointed out that the text messages were submitted by a defense attorney, and didn’t come from a witness under oath. Renna texted to a coll. Her attorney, Henry Klingeman, said in an email that she “will answer questions when she testifies at the upcoming trial, not before”.
The messages invite a fresh wave of scrutiny for Christie, who has long maintained he had no involvement in or knowledge of the closures, which caused major traffic headaches and were allegedly political retribution against the mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., for refusing to endorse Christie during his re-election campaign.
Renna got into trouble on another matter during her time in Christie’s Intergovernmental Affairs Office. Kelly eventually took over for Stepien. Video of Baroni’s testimony before the New Jersey legislature should also be excluded, they say, because it’s “political theater” and “unduly prejudicial”. Baroni is charged alongside former Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly, with conspiracy, fraud, and other crimes related to the bridge closure scheme.
But that, according to a newly released text exchange between former aides to Christie, is a “flat out lie”.
To date, three people have been indicted in the lane closure investigation.
Christie would apologize weeks later at another news conference, when he said he was firing his deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, and that he had been “lied to” when he told reporters no one on his staff was involved.
Follow up: “Your campaign chief?”
Christie’s office said that remains unchanged. “I’ve spoken to Mr. Stepien, who’s the person in charge of the campaign, and he has assured me the same thing”.
In May 2014, Renna testified to lawmakers who were investigating the lane closings.
But Renna hasn’t been able to wash her hands of the affair. “But I wanted to protect myself as well”.
The Daily Beast reported that once Christie made this announcement, staffer Christina Genovese Renna texted Christie’s attorney, Mark Sheridan, to ask, “Are you listening?”
In the filing, Baroni’s attorneys seek to throw out evidence they say amounts to a “potpourri of information cobbled together from an investigation that, in the end, could not locate a viable federal prosecution”, such as photographs of Baroni and others at a September 11 memorial service during the access lane shutdown on the Fort Lee side of the bridge. He said that documents produced by the colleague she texted, Peter Sheridan, included the exchange.
The papers were filed by Baroni attorney Michael Baldassare.
Advertisement
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. Kelly stands trial next month in federal court on Bridgegate charges alongside Baroni, the former Port Authority official.
