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A former aide to Chris Christie texted to a colleague that the New Jersey governor "flat out lied" about the involvement of his senior staff and campaign manager during a news conference about the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal, according to a new court filing. (Aug. 10) AP
Bridget Anne Kelly and her lawyer, Michael Critchley Jr., walk Oct. 24, 2016, toward the federal courthouse in Newark, N.J. (Photo: Kevin R. Wexler, The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record)
NEWARK, N.J. — A former top aide of New Jersey's governor said Monday that she told Gov. Chris Christie about political-retribution charges leveled at the administration because of a week of lane closures at the George Washington Bridge in 2013, the third conversation she said she had with him about the bridge.
During that week in September, Bridget Anne Kelly, a former deputy chief of staff to the governor, said she believed the closures were done as part of a traffic study, but she began having doubts soon after the lanes were reopened. By the time Christie had a December press conference in which he denied his senior staff had knowledge of the lane closures, she said, “It was like an alternate world.”
In her second day on the witness stand in her own defense, Kelly also explained her thinking behind correspondence during the week of the lane closures that suggest she was in on the lane reductions that prosecutors say were done to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., Mark Sokolich.
Kelly and Bill Baroni, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's former deputy executive director, face nine counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and rights violations in a trial now in its sixth week. Baroni’s former deputy, David Wildstein, has pleaded guilty to his role and is cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuting the case.
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On the second day of the lane closures, Wildstein sent Kelly a text message saying that Sokolich called the bridge traffic “maddening” and that students were getting to school late.
“Is it wrong that I’m smiling?” Kelly replied. “I feel badly about the kids. I guess.”
Kelly explained that she had had “mixed feelings” about the mayor’s response. On one hand, she said she was happy that the first day of what she believed was a traffic study had gone well, as Wildstein had reported to her, but she felt bad for the children stuck in traffic.
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“I wasn’t sitting there smiling or gloating. I was happy for David and I should have used different words,” Kelly said.
Kelly has testified that she first told Christie of a planned traffic study at the bridge in August, one month before the lane closures. She said the two spoke again Sept. 11, the third day.
On Sept. 12, after a devastating fire in Seaside Park and Seaside Heights, Kelly said she followed up with the governor. Earlier that day she had received an email from one of her employees recounting a conversation with Sokolich in which he said there were rumors in town that the lane closures were “retribution.”
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Kelly said she asked Christie if he wanted the office she oversaw, Intergovernmental Affairs, to get in touch with Sokolich.
“He said, 'No, let Wildstein handle it,' ” Kelly said. “I said, 'He’s talking about government retribution.' He said, 'It’s a Port Authority project. Let Wildstein handle it.' ”
Christie has denied having knowledge of the lane closures as they happened.
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On that same email concerning the employee’s conversation with Sokolich, Kelly had replied “good,” suggesting satisfaction that the mayor was frustrated. But Kelly said she said “good” in response to a line in the email saying that the employee intended to get more information and speak to the mayor.
Kelly said she started getting confused on the final day of the lane closures, Sept. 13, after the Port Authority's executive director, Patrick Foye, reopened the lanes despite Baroni's pleas to keep them closed. The port authority’s chairman at the time, David Samson, a close friend of Christie’s, had also gotten involved.
Wildstein told Kelly that Samson was helping to “retaliate.”
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“None of that made any sense to me,” Kelly said, because Wildstein was “emphatic” about the success of the traffic study. “This was totally contrary to anything he was telling me. I didn’t understand it at all.”
A column in The Record the following day, Sept. 14, further confused Kelly, she said. The column, like two others that week, had said the Port Authority and Fort Lee officials had not had any communication about the lane closures. Kelly said Wildstein had assured her that wasn’t the case and that the stories were inaccurate.
“Everything that David told me, there was no reason not to believe him,” Kelly said. “I was very confused.”
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As the weeks wore on, Kelly began to feel as if her job were in jeopardy. She said she had discussed the lane closures with Christie, as well as his chief of staff at the time, Kevin O’Dowd.
But neither of them said they knew about the closures and allegations of political retribution, she said.
During a Dec. 2, 2013, press conference, Christie joked about the lane realignment when a reporter asked about it. Then, on Dec. 12 — 10 days later — O’Dowd called Kelly and asked her if she knew anything about the lanes and if she knew anything about retribution. Kelly said she told him no, only that it was part of a traffic study.
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The following morning, Dec. 13, Christie called a senior staff meeting in his office and said if anyone knew anything about the lane closures they should see O’Dowd or his chief counsel at the time, Charlie McKenna.
“I was like, he knew about Fort Lee — he, meaning the governor. Kevin O’Dowd knew about Fort Lee. Mike Drewniak knew about Fort Lee,” she said, referring to the governor’s then-spokesman. “I was at that point petrified because now nobody was remembering that they knew everything about this traffic study.”
When Christie told reporters during the news conference that he had had that meeting and his staff had assured him that no one had involvement in the lane closures or that they were done as political payback, Kelly texted O’Dowd:
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“Let me know what you want me to do,” according to evidence.
O’Dowd did not respond, she said. But she wanted to speak with him because “the governor’s words didn’t match my actions.”
“I just knew that it wasn’t going to be a good thing for me,” Kelly said.
Follow Dustin Racioppi on Twitter: @dracioppi
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A former official who pleaded guilty in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing "Bridgegate" case and is expected to be the government's star witness is set to testify. (Sept. 23) AP
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Former staffers for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who are expected on the stand in the so-called Bridgegate scandal arrive at a Newark courthouse. (Sept. 23) AP
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The New Jersey governor is no longer running for president. Several issues, including the overshadowing of the "Bridgegate" scandal and Donald Trump, made him sink in the polls. VPC
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New details emerge from the Bridgegate trial. USA TODAY
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Two people were indicted and one person entered a guilty plea in the George Washington Bridge Case. In 2013, several lanes were closed causing traffic problems in Fort Lee, NJ in an apparent ploy to get back at Gov. Chris Christie. VPC
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Gov. Chris Christie says his office will cooperate with the U.S. Attorney General's subpoena in the Bridgegate investigation, but his former top aide Bridget Anne Kelly is staying silent. VPC
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Prominent state Democrats react to scandal at Christie's office. Michael Symons, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press
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Another official has resigned in the wake of a New Jersey investigation into lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Friday at his first news conference in more than two months. VPC
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