In court Thursday, the executive director of the Port Authority, Patrick Foye, called Wildstein abusive and said he was unable to fire him because he was protected by the governor, WCBS 880’s Peter Haskell reports.
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NEWARK, N.J. (AP) Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s office used the bistate agency that runs the NY area’s bridges, tunnels, ports and airports as a clearinghouse for political favors aimed at gaining endorsements from local Democratic politicians, a witness testified Friday in the fraud trial of two former Christie allies.
A former Port Authority of NY and New Jersey official who pleaded guilty in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing case has taken the stand as the government’s star witness.
Attorneys say David Wildstein is one of the next three witnesses listed in the trial of two former allies of Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
He said that meant, “The only person he needed to make happy was Gov. Christie”.
Wildstein said the “goodie bag” scheme allowed Christie’s office to take credit for items given by the Port Authority, a bi-state agency run jointly with NY. What’s more, Foye considered Wildstein such a threat that he posted pictures of him at every Port Authority facility, with instructions that he was to barred from entering.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie used the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey as a “goody bag” to dole out gifts and favors in exchange for political endorsements for his 2013 re-election, the star witness testified at the trial of two Christie allies.
Kelly and former Port Authority of NY and New Jersey executive Bill Baroni are charged with causing traffic jams in September 2013 to punish Sokolich.
Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, the Port Authority’s former deputy chief of staff, are accused of ordering traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey, for not backing the governor’s re-election in 2013.
Attorneys for Kelly and Baroni have portrayed Wildstein as a liar and trickster who duped their clients into thinking the lane closures were a legitimate traffic study.
At the start of the trial, federal prosecutors claimed for the first time that Christie knew his two close associates were involved in the shutdown.
Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, and former Port Authority of NY and New Jersey executive Bill Baroni are charged with closing access lanes to the George Washington Bridge to punish the mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie. But his chief of staff, John Ma, testified that Foye didn’t reopen the lanes right away, even though he could have done it earlier than Friday.
Bridge-Gate defense attorneys tried to show the dysfunction that surrounded the lane closings of the George Washington Bridge during Day 4 of the trial Thursday.
Mowers, who now works for Trump, also testified he told Kelly about Sokolich’s decision on August 12, 2013, the day before Kelly sent an email to Wildstein saying, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee”.
Wildstein said that Baroni hired him to play “bad cop” to Baroni’s “good cop”. Christie denies he knew of the scheme.
Prosecutors said Monday that Wildstein bragged to Christie about the lane-closures on the third of their four days, something Christie has long denied.
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Former Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly, seen on the right in this September 12, 2013 photo provided by the Office of the Governor of New Jersey, is one of the aides fighting a subpoena from the state legislature. Mowers testified that despite World Trade Center tours and invites to the governor’s mansion in Princeton, Sokolich balked at backing Christie.
