Now, prosecutors came out and said it.
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Khanna told jurors that David Wildstein, another Port Authority official, will testify he and Baroni made Christie aware of the plan during a 9/11 memorial in New York City in 2013, three days after the gridlock started. In January 2014, emails and text messages were publicly disclosed that showed the officials’ involvement, including an August 13, 2013, email in which Kelly told Wildstein: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee”.
Baroni’s attorney told jurors Monday that Wildstein is a twisted, vindictive individual who is a habitual liar.
Last night, in a CNN interview, Governor Chris Christie said at that time, there was no evidence connecting the bombing in Seaside Park with bombs found in Elizabeth and an explosion in New York City that wounded 29 people, but said the Federal Bureau of Investigation and state authorities are still investigating. He said they made a decision to “throw her under the presidential bus”. Prosecutors charge that Baroni and Kelly, both 44, and Wildstein concocted the phony cover story that the closures were part of an unannounced traffic study.
He added that Christie used to jokingly refer to Wildstein as his “Mr. Wolf”, a character in the movie Pulp Fiction who “cleans up the bodies”.
In his opening statement, Michael Baldassare, said that Wildstein had spent his entire political career intimidating people and spinning lies. Critchley displayed a chart in the courtroom with Christie at the center, titled “Inner Circle”. This characterization directly contradicts the way Christie has characterized their relationship – as nearly non-existent.
According to Politico, assistant U.S. attorney Vikas Khanna explained that Christie’s aides bragged to Christie about the traffic jam when they spoke to him at a 9/11 memorial in Manhattan while the traffic problems were ongoing.
“He was Chris Christie’s cleaner”, Critchley said. “They were interacting on a very close level”. Wildstein is a onetime political blogger and high school classmate of Christie’s who served as the Port Authority’s director of interstate capital projects, a position created for him. Photos of Wildstein and Baroni with Christie that morning were already public. He stole Baroni’s computer’s hard drive when fired from the Port Authority.
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He was said to having stolen Frank Lautenberg’s jacket at a 1982 U.S. Senate debate and took it home as a trophy. He lied about graduating from George Washington University on his application to the Port Authority. That email read “Time for traffic problems in Fort Lee”.
After the lane shutdown began on September 9, causing severe gridlock, Baroni ignored numerous pleas from Sokolich to re-open the lanes.
“This case in not only about facts – it’s about a presidential campaign”, said Kelly’s defense attorney Michael Critchley.
Though the only campaign Christie could damage now is that of Donald Trump-for whom he’s leading a White House transition team-the governor still poses a political danger to himself.
Both of the defense attorneys sought to minimize their clients’ role within the Christie orbit, despite public evidence that they were quite influential. “They were talking to each other”. He’s a bully, he’s an asshole, he’s a frightful person, he’s the most complicated person I’ve ever met.
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Khanna told the jury they would hear testimony from Wildstein in which he would describe the brief conversation that took place there.
