Wildstein pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts past year and is cooperating with prosecutors. Baroni joined the plot to use Port Authority resources to cripple the roadways by closing two of three local access lanes to the world’s busiest bridge, prosecutors say. Many were disappointed that the blue-state Republican governor didn’t run for president in 2012, and he reportedly made Mitt Romney’s vice presidential shortlist that year.
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And there is ample evidence already that the bridge lane closures put Christie’s Trenton on red alert.
Christie has consistently denied he knew at the time that his associates had colluded in creating traffic hell for Fort Lee.
Bridget Anne Kelly, 44, is Christie’s former deputy chief of staff and Baroni, 44, is the governor’s former top executive appointee at the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey, which owns and operates the bridge.
In their opening statements, lawyers for Baroni and Kelly derided Wildstein, 54, as a serial liar, a lifelong manipulator and a political operative who was Christie’s enforcer to help him in his quest for the White House. Sure, top members of Christie’s team orchestrated and executed the plan, but the governor, his reputation for micromanaging notwithstanding, insisted he had no idea what was going on with his own top aides who were abusing their power in his name.
Traffic approaches the George Washington Bridge earlier this month. “They were interacting on a very close level”.
A politician who built a national reputation and presidential ambitions with a tightly controlled public image, Christie now faces what may be the biggest challenge of the bridge scandal: a sustained assault in a venue where he can’t control what’s being said.
“Christie is at the end of his political life in New Jersey and so the trial has lost a sense of urgency”, Murray said. “He was Chris Christie’s cleaner”.
“The evidence will show their case is David Wildstein”, Baldassare told jurors.
The governor has said in the past that he had no knowledge of the 2013 closures. Did I have any knowledge of it beforehand? The Fort Lee, New Jersey, Democrat refused to endorse Christie’s 2013 gubernatorial campaign, which was trying to garner bipartisan support. At Christie’s direction, Wildstein got Jerry Speziele to drop a Passaic County sheriff’s bid by getting him a job as Port Authority deputy police superintendent.
But this traffic jam was different, with people stranded for hours and Fort Lee rendered impassible for four straight days. Kelly and Baroni “chose personal, political revenge over public service”.
“Not only was that conduct mean-spirited, and vindictive, it was illegal”, Khanna said.
Critchley said the “traffic problems” e-mail was “casual banter” that was in response to a manipulative scheme that Wildstein had laid out. “My God, does she wish that”. Christie has said that if Wildstein mentioned Fort Lee traffic, it meant nothing to him and he doesn’t recall. Lee Mayor Sokolich’s numerous efforts to reach them. Mark Sokolich, the city’s Democratic mayor, had written to Baroni in November 2010 to complain of ongoing traffic problems.
They are both charged with wire fraud, conspiracy, deprivation of civil rights and misusing an organisation receiving federal funds. The most serious charge carries a 20-year maximum prison sentence. Wildstein previously pleaded guilty to two lesser counts of conspiracy in exchange for cooperating with investigators. “It’s probably their most important mission in the case”. The adversaries all agreed about one thing: Christie knew.
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The prosecutor, Vikas Khanna, instantly advised the jury that they should not consider the actions of “others” or wonder why they were not charged. Critchley said that’s nonsense and that Wildstein pitched the traffic alternation to Kelly as a logical traffic study that would undo a political deal struck decades ago.
