“The only person who mattered was Gov. Christie”.
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He said the “one constituent rule” was the way he and former Port Deputy Director Bill Baroni “approached every decision. 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.
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. Baroni wanted to hire Wildstein as his No. 2 and to be the “bad cop” who would work “aggressively” to advance New Jersey’s interests at the agency. The pair had a conversation at the Port soon after they started the job in 2010 and Wildstein told Baroni, a former state senator, they he didn’t have multiple constituents anymore. “The only person he needed make happy was Gov 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.
Kelly and former Port Authority of NY and New Jersey executive Bill Baroni are charged with causing traffic jams to punish Sokolich.
Traffic on inbound lanes is at a crawl. She and Baroni claim Wildstein orchestrated the lane-closing scheme.
Wildstein and Christie attended high school together.
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Christie has denied that the two had a close relationship, but Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye testified that Wildstein was “protected” by Christie at the Port Authority.
