Prosecutors say it was a criminal conspiracy cooked up by Baroni and Kelly to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich out of political revenge.
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That’s a reference to Bill Baroni, the former Port Authority deputy executive director on trial on charges he closed lanes to punish Democratic Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s re-election. Speculation remains rampant that Christie was part of the week-long plot, although he has always denied any involvement.
New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie and New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo appear on a list of more than 300 witnesses who may be called to testify in the trial over the George Washington Bridge lane closures.
Khanna’s statement contradicted three years of denials by the governor. Christie is not a party in the ongoing trial.
Bendul described heavy traffic near the bridge and testified that an official from the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey told him to “have the mayor call Baroni”.
“This case is about the defendants’ abuse of power and callous disregard for the people of Fort Lee”, Khanna told jurors.
“Not only was that conduct mean-spirited, and vindictive, it was illegal”, Khanna said.
Chris Christie’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly, right, arrives at Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Court for a hearing, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, in Newark, N.J. Three years after gridlock paral. “Events don’t happen in a vacuum”.
“It wasn’t a comfortable place to be”, said Sokolich, a Democrat. But when Sokolich decided not to cross party lines, Kelly and Baroni conspired with Wildstein, another Port Authority executive, to get even, prosecutors say.
A month before the gridlock began, Kelly sent Wildstein an e-mail that said: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee”. Wildstein responded: “Got it”. Bendul testified he warned Durando: “If anybody dies, I’m telling them to sue him and everyone at the Port Authority”. He described receiving invitations to parties, New York Giants football games and a lunch at the governor’s mansion in Princeton, beginning soon after Christie took office in early 2010. “He told me to have the mayor call Baroni”. She and former Port Authority of NY and New Jersey executive director Bill Baroni also is on trial.
A New Jersey state legislature investigation lurched through that fall with inconclusive answers but mounting pressure on Baroni and Wildstein, who were forced to resign in November 2013. Kelly is Christie’s former deputy chief of staff. Within days, Wildstein’s lawyer Alan Zegas said “evidence exists” tying Christie to the lane closures as they were happening. They face the possibility of years in jail and fines totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Baroni has claimed the realignment was part of a traffic study conceived and operated by David Wildstein, a Port Authority official who pleaded guilty in connection with the scandal past year. Some 67 percent of Garden State voters also now say they have an unfavorable opinion of Christie, marking another personal record for the governor.
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“The defense will do everything they can to call his credibility into question”, Vartan said. He testified that he told Durando he was dealing with “a missing 4-year-old, a cardiac arrest” plus numerous road rage incidents stemming from the gridlock.
