They are accused of closing access to lanes to punish a mayor for not endorsing Christie.
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Mark Makela/Getty Images News/Getty ImagesNEWARK, NJ – SEPTEMBER 19: Bridget Anne Kelly, the former Deputy Chief of Staff to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, departs the Martin Luther King, Jr. The attorneys said that Wildstein had proudly called himself a “bully” and said that Christie had likened him to Winston Wolf, the character played by Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction. They pleaded not guilty.
“David Wildstein is a vicious guy”, Baldassare told the jury in his opening statement.
“The government made a deal with the devil, and they’re stuck with him”, he said.
Two people were indicted and one person entered a guilty plea in the George Washington Bridge Case.
“This case in not only about facts – it’s about a presidential campaign”, said Kelly’s defense attorney Michael Critchley. Critchley said she had just been repeating previously used language, not issuing instructions on how to proceed. Though the governor is not on trial, his presence, and the question of what he knew, was felt in the courtroom today.
Christie took over Trump’s transition team in May, giving the GOP presidential nominee a seasoned politician familiar with managing an executive branch. “There are people at the highest level of government in New Jersey and at the very, very top of the Port Authority”. Kelly was Christie’s former chief of staff.
“The evidence will show that. You’re going to hear that Christie was Wildstein’s world, and that David Wildstein loved him”. However, he didn’t think he would be called he has “no knowledge of this incident at all”. Governor Christie, now a prominent Trump surrogate, consistently claimed ignorance of the vengeful plot behind Bridgegate.
Baroni was a top Christie appointee to Port Authority of NY and New Jersey, which operates the George Washington Bridge, which straddles the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and NY. Christie fired Kelly in 2014 after it was revealed she sent a message to Wildstein saying “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” before the closures. Wildstein had been the recipient of Kelly’s email and replied, “Got it”.
“The defendants abused their powers”, Khanna said.
“They chose punishment over public safety”. “Not only was that conduct vindictive and mean-spirited, it was criminal”.
Baldassare said that Baroni will testify at the trial.
The siege ended only when Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority and an appointee of New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, ordered the lanes reopened on the fifth morning. Prosecutors say Wildstein will testify he and Baroni “bragged” about the traffic problems to Christie during the third day of the four-day shutdown.
They are both charged with wire fraud, conspiracy, deprivation of civil rights and misusing an organisation receiving federal funds. Wildstein plead guilty to federal corruption charges previous year and is testifying for the prosecution.
The defense has suggested it will point the finger at others, including Christie, in arguing that Kelly and Baroni would never have acted on their own.
The governor has said in the past that he had no knowledge of the 2013 closures.
There have always been indications that Christie may have known more than he was letting on.
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One of the enduring mysteries of this controversy is that we don’t know whether or not Christie’s claim is true.
