NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – A former campaign staffer for New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie has testified he told one of the defendants in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing case that a Democratic mayor wouldn’t endorse Christie.
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Defense attorneys spent the day using Foye and another witness to hammer at the character and credibility of Wildstein, who pleaded guilty to his role in the plot and will testify as the key government witness.
For starters, Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye acknowledged for the first time that he was powerless to prevent Wildstein from doing whatever he wanted, because he was being “protected” by Gov. Chris Christie.
“The evidence will show that Baroni and Wildstein were so committed to their plan to punish (Fort Lee) Mayor (Mark) Sokolich that during those precious few minutes that they had alone with the governor, they bragged about the fact that there were traffic problems in Fort Lee and that Mayor Sokolich was not getting his calls returned”, the prosecutor said.
But Foye said despite knowing everything he did about Wildstein, he failed to share that information with the feds.
Foye was asked why he had conducted a quick, internal inquiry into the lane closures, but had not interviewed Wildstein, even though he was told by other Port Authority officials that Wildstein was “the culprit”.
In addition, Foye testified Wednesday that Baroni told him on September 13, 2013, the day Foye ordered the traffic lanes reopened, that “senior staff” in Trenton had been briefed about the closures. Wildstein’s office phone included a mysterious “extension pack” which agency staffers suspected allowed him to listen in on phone calls, he said.
Chris Christie’s “fixer” at the Port Authority was “hated by hundreds, thousands of people”, but he could not be easily removed because he was “protected” by the governor, it was revealed at the Bridgegate trial Thursday.
Matt Mowers (MOW’-ers) could testify for the prosecution Thursday.
Christie lied to the people of his state when he claimed that he knew nothing about the closures.
On Sept. 9th at 1:56 p.m., Kelly emailed Mowers seemingly randomly, he said, to ask if he had “heard from Sokolich” in a while and he replied right away that he had not.
Mowers worked on Christie’s 2013 gubernatorial campaign and later for his unsuccessful presidential campaign.
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When that didn’t happen, prosecutors allege the political conspiracy went into action.
