Prosecutors: Christie told of Bridgegate lane closures

NEWARK — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal while it was taking place, according to federal prosecutors making their opening statements Monday morning in the trial of two former allies of the governor accused of creating gridlock in Fort Lee to punish the town’s mayor for not endorsing Christie’s 2013 re-election.

The governor, who has denied any knowledge of the scandal until months later, was told about the lane closures at a Sept. 11 memorial service at the World Trade Center in 2013, three days into the closures, U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna told jurors.

After a town-hall style event in Whippany, N.J., where Christie was pushing his plan to overhaul education funding, the governor refused to answer questions about the statement made by prosecutors.

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Khanna said that Christie was told by Bill Baroni and David Wildstein, two former officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns and operates the bridge.

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“The evidence will show that Baroni and Wildstein were so committed to their plan to punish (Fort Lee) Mayor (Mark) Sokolich during those few minutes they had alone with the governor they bragged about the fact there were traffic problems in Fort Lee and Mayor Sokolich was not getting his calls returned,” Khanna said.

Bridget Anne Kelly, 44, is Christie’s former deputy chief of staff and Baroni, 44, is the governor’s former top executive appointee at the Port Authority.

The pair are charged with misusing federally funded property, wire fraud and depriving residents of their civil rights to travel freely in the town. They face the possibility of years in jail and fines totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Baroni’s defense lawyer painted Wildstein as a “bully” and a “liar” who acted as Christie’s “ventriloquist’s doll.”

In his opening statement, Michael Baldassare, said that Wildstein had spent his entire political career intimidating people and spinning lies.

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Baldassare said that was why Christie installed Wildstein as his political “fixer” at the Port Authority.

“When David Wildstein spoke, Governor Christie’s voice came out and everybody knew it,” said Baldassare. “When the government says 'Trenton,' 'Trenton' is the governor. Make no mistake.”

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.”

Wildstein pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in relation to the lane closures last year and is cooperating with federal prosecutors.

“The government made a deal with the devil and they’re stuck with him,” Baldassare said.

Baldassare said that Baroni will testify at the trial.

“When it becomes time I guarantee you 100%, I’m saying it here in open court,” Baldassare told the jury. “Bill is going to sit in that witness box and tell you what happened.”

Baldassare’s counterpart, Michael Critchley who is representing Kelly, referenced what was to date the most damning piece of evidence to spill out in the aftermath of the lane closure scandal — an email reading “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

But Critchley said the message was taken out of context and twisted by the government’s star witness, David Wildstein.

Kelly’s lawyer, Michael Critchley, told jurors during the opening day of trial in federal court in Newark on Monday that far from ordering the lane closures, Kelly was Wildstein’s pawn.

Critchley depicted Kelly as a naive, single mother of four, a low-ranking Christie staffer who took Wildstein — Christie’s political “Rottweiler” — at his word.

“What she didn’t know from hindsight was, this person was crazy,” Critchley said of Wildstein.

Critchley told jurors that the lane closures were Wildstein’s idea.

He said that Wildstein had suggested to Kelly previously that the three access lanes to the bridge from Fort Lee were the result of a decades-old political deal between the town and a former New Jersey governor. He added that Wildstein suggested to Kelly that the lanes could be taken away but that it would cause traffic problems in Fort Lee and stiff opposition from the town’s mayor.

“Does she wish she never said 'time for some traffic problems'? My God does she wish she never used that” phrase, Critchley said.

Contributing: Salvador Rizzo, The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record.Follow Paul Berger on Twitter: @pdberger