Foye’s testimony put the focus on the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey, which runs the bridge and New York-area airports, tunnels, transit hubs and the World Trade Center. Michael Critchley, Kelly’s attorney, asked Sokolich on cross-examination. Kelly and Bill Baroni are charged with causing traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge in September 2013.
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The Democratic New Jersey mayor who prosecutors say was targeted in a political revenge plot by former allies of Republican Gov. Chris Christie is back on the witness stand at their federal trial.
David Wildstein, expected to be the key prosecution witness in the Bridgegate trial, could testify as soon as Friday.
Wildstein pleaded guilty previous year to orchestrating traffic jams in 2013 to punish a mayor who didn’t endorse Christie.
They suggested that Foye, a Cuomo appointee and executive director of the Port Authority, ended the lane closings to be a “hero” but then lied to the public for months about what happened.
Defense attorneys in their opening statements implied he was foisted on Baroni, who technically was Wildstein’s superior, by Christie because Baroni wasn’t deemed tough enough.
Foye said that Wildstein “terrorized people”, tried to tap the phones of co-workers and was hated by “hundreds and thousands” of people at the agency. On a separate visit to the 9/11 memorial, Sokolich testified, he met David Wildstein, the former Port Authority official who pleaded guilty past year in the scheme and will testify for the government.
Foye’s chief of staff, John Ma, testified he gave an off-the-record interview to a reporter on September 12, 2013, the day before Foye ordered the lanes reopened, during which he told the reporter the Port Authority wasn’t conducting a traffic study at the bridge.
The police chief, Keith Bendul, said he met with bridge manager Robert Durando in a municipal parking lot to talk about gridlocked traffic on the first day of the lane closures. Critchley asked Foye if Governor Chris Christie protected Wildstein, and Foye answered yes.
Wildstein, who has been described by defense lawyers as an intimidating political operative who was placed in the agency to be Christie’s enforcer, pleaded guilty to his role in the lane closings and agreed to cooperate in bid to for a lighter sentence.
Later, Foye said Wildstein, who even Newark federal prosecutors say engaged in “dirty tricks”, was shielded by Christie.
Mowers worked on Christie’s 2013 gubernatorial campaign.
They are charged with closing access lanes to the George Washington Bridge to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie. They allegedly told the governor that the closures were meant to “mess” with Mayor Mark Sokolich of Fort Lee, N.J., a Democrat, for not endorsing Christie’s reelection.
CORRECTS SPELLING OF BARONI – Bill Baroni, center, and his attorney Michael Baldassare, far left, arrive at the Martin Luther King Jr. They’re charged with causing traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge in 2013. Baroni was deputy executive director at the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey, which operates the bridge. 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. The defendants in this trial are Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, who were Christie’s close allies.
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An in-depth look at the scandal over the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge and related aftershocks.
