Prosecutors said Monday that Wildstein bragged to Christie about the lane-closures on the third of their four days, something Christie has long denied. Some employees believed him to be monitoring their calls after he had a multiple-line attachment installed on the phone in his office, Foye said.
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Bridget Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, 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 Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie.
When asked why he didn’t just fire Wildstein, Foye initially punted, saying “it was complicated”.
Wildstein was a high school classmate of Christie’s, but Christie has denied having a close relationship with him.
Kelly was Christie’s deputy chief of staff. Baroni was an executive at the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey.
But the agency chief also admitted that he approved telling reporters in the aftermath of the traffic jams that the lane closures had been part of a traffic study, when Foye knew at the time that there was no study.
“He was protected by Chris Christie, correct?” asked Michael Critchley, the defense attorney for former Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly.
Hated by perhaps “thousands” working at the bi-state agency, Wildstein was described by Foye as “abusive”, “an enforcer”, and someone who “terrorized people”.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s top executive at the Port Authority acknowledged Thursday that he couldn’t fire the New Jersey staffer who orchestrated the politically motivated lane closings at the George Washington Bridge because he was protected by Governor Christie. He could be called to begin his testimony as the government’s star witness on Friday.
This week, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich testified Mowers sought his endorsement for several months leading up to the election. Foye ordered that Wildstein’s photograph be posted at all Port Authority facilities.
David Wildstein, expected to be the key prosecution witness in the Bridgegate trial, could testify as soon as Friday.
Port Authority of NY and New Jersey executive director Patrick Foye testified Thursday that was part of the reason he didn’t interview David Wildstein during an internal review of the September 2013 traffic jams in Fort Lee.
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During the week of gridlock caused by the local lane reductions in Fort Lee, Sokolich testified that Baroni ignored his repeated efforts to reach him and get him to reopen the lanes. They also have said other people with more power and influence were involved in the lane closures but aren’t being prosecuted. But the Port Authority executive would only say “it’s complicated”, when asked why he took no action-even after he said Wildstein had been accused of sexual orientation harassment. In coded language, he told her that had looked at her unit’s phone bills and they were rather high “so we had to be careful and not make unnecessary calls outside, particularly to New Jersey. Pat responded, ‘Go ahead, I’m not reversing this.’ He said, ‘I’m not going to have someone die in the back of an ambulance, not on my watch”‘.
