On the spreadsheet next to Sokolich’s name Christie’s staffer listed a number of favors including the purchase of shuttle buses for Fort Lee, which was paid for by the Port Authority, steel from the original World Trade Center and a personal tour of the new World Trade Center, both of which are Port Authority property.
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“The only person who mattered was Gov. Christie”. Loretta Weinberg. “Everything used as a tool for the constituency of one”. “If it was good for Gov. Christie, it was good for us; if it was not good for Gov. Christie, it was not good for us”, he told the court.
Wildstein has pleaded guilty to causing massive traffic jams in Fort Lee to punish the borough’s Democratic mayor who did not endorse Christie for re-election.
Wildstein said that Baroni hired him as director of interstate capital projects but, in practice, his “job was to act as Mr. Baroni’s chief of staff”.
Wildstein, at the beginning of his testimony, said he and Baroni often talked of the “one-constituent rule”, referring to Christie as the only constituent they needed to serve. Three years after gridlock paralyzed a New Jersey town next to the George Washington Bridge for days, two former allies of Christie, Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly, are being tried.
Foye also testified that he couldn’t fire Wildstein because it was “practically complicated”, though he conceded he had the statutory authority to fire him. Foye is an appointee of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the bistate agency.
Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye testified Wildstein was universally hated at the agency but was “protected” by Christie, but Christie has denied the two had a close relationship.
Wildstein, who was appointed to the Port Authority by Christie, said his role was to enforce the governor’s agenda by using grants, trips to the World Trade Center, and flags that flew over Ground Zero as gifts to Democratic officials to entice them to vote for Christie in his 2013 reelection bid. Christie has denied prior knowledge of the plot and wasn’t charged. They have pleaded not guilty and have said the government has twisted federal law to turn their actions into crimes. A former Christie campaign staffer testified Kelly’s office kept a spreadsheet noting what favors mayors had received and, on a scale from 1 to 10, their likelihood of endorsing Christie.
A day later, Kelly sent an email saying, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee”.
In one case, Wildstein had the 100 flags flown over the World Trade Center site on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks shipped to the governor’s office after the ceremony to be distributed to local officials as it saw fit.
“Given that it will probably be a long term focus, it probably makes sense to track all of our dem targets”, Mowers, who now works for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, wrote in an email presented at the Bridgegate trial.
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Christie’s office and a Port Authority spokesman didn’t return messages seeking comment Friday.
