They’re charged with causing traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge in September 2013.
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Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, told jurors Thursday that he didn’t try to interview a top employee, David Wildstein, about the lane closings to the world’s busiest bridge because he was protected by Christie.
“He was protected by Chris Christie (pictured), correct?” defense attorney Michael Baldassare asked, referring to Wildstein.
During their cross-examinination of Foye and the mayor of Fort Lee on Wednesday, lawyers for the defendants tried to steer blame above and away from their clients, portraying them as well-meaning pawns in a political game they could not control. He said he knew the assertion to be untrue.
Prosecutors say the two caused traffic jams at the George Washington Bridge that plunged Fort Lee into four days of gridlock.
This week, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich testified Mowers sought his endorsement for several months leading up to the election. After Wildstein left the Port Authority in 2013, Foye had photographs put up in all Port Authority facilities to make sure he couldn’t get in because he was so nervous about him.
But that changed on September 9, 2013, when – without any notice to Fort Lee officials – the local access lanes to the bridge were reduced from three to one, paralyzing the town with the worst gridlock he has ever seen, Sokolich said.
Sokolich testified Tuesday he was showered with attention from Christie staffers before declining to endorse Christie’s re-election in late summer 2013.
The executive director of the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey testified in federal court in Newark that the man behind the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge in 2013 was protected by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. She said when Baroni returned her message the following day he curtly told her that her department’s outgoing phone charges were being reviewed because they were too high, which she took to mean she wasn’t to contact Fort Lee.
Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey, testified at the trial of former Port Authority deputy executive director Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly, Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s former deputy chief of staff.
“I have no reason to believe Mr. Stepien will be called as a witness at this trial”, Kevin Marino, Stepien’s attorney, said in an email.
A Democratic New Jersey mayor who prosecutors say was punished with traffic gridlock by former allies of Republican Gov. Chris Christie for not endorsing Christie tells a jury he lied when he wrote to a newspaper it wasn’t a case of political retaliation. “I was petrified of further retribution”.
Foye’s chief of staff, John Ma, also testified on Thursday, describing a call he had on the fourth day of the traffic jams with John Cichowski, a Bergen Record reporter who called before printing the first story about the debacle.
But Foye said despite knowing everything he did about Wildstein, he failed to share that information with the feds.
Sokolich said that as a “local mayor”, he didn’t realize there would be a federal investigation into the infamous lane closures.
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Fort Lee Police Chief Keith Bendul testified Tuesday at the federal trial of Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly, two former allies of Republican Gov. Chris Christie.
