Bridgegate: Prosecution rests case on infamous email

Bill Baroni and  Bridget Anne Kelly  – DANIELLE PARHIZKARAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

































Paul Berger reports for The Record:


After almost four weeks of testimony, prosecutors wrapped up their case against two former allies of Governor Christie by calling an FBI agent to testify that she was unable to find several crucial emails between a former aide to Christie and the admitted mastermind of the George Washington Bridge lane closures.


Special Agent Michelle Pickels testified in federal court in Newark on Thursday that she had a copy of the emails between the governor’s former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, taken from bridge plotter David Wildstein’s email account.

An in-depth look at the scandal over the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge and related aftershocks. Click here to launch.

But Pickels said that when she searched Kelly’s Yahoo account, she could not locate those same emails. The missing messages included the now-infamous August 2013 email from Kelly to Wildstein, first reported by The Record: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”


Asked why she could not find those emails, Pickels responded: “I could not tell.”

Jurors were presented with the evidence immediately after watching video of a combative appearance by Kelly’s co-defendant, Bill Baroni, in 2013, before a legislative committee probing the lane closures.


Lawyers for Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, had fought to keep the video out of the trial.

The recording showed Baroni testify that Fort Lee unfairly benefited from having three access lanes to the congested bridge and that the lane reductions, over five mornings in September 2013, were part of a legitimate traffic study.

Over the course of about 1½ hours, Baroni comes under sustained interrogation in the video from a panel of angry and deeply skeptical lawmakers led by Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex.


Baroni and Kelly, both 44, are accused of reducing the lanes from three to one to punish the mayor of Fort Lee for refusing to endorse the governor’s 2013 reelection bid.

The mayor, Mark Sokolich, and his police chief, Keith Bendul, testified earlier in the trial that the closures caused gridlock in their town, severely delaying commuters, school buses and first responders. Both men said that their repeated phone calls and messages requesting relief from the Port Authority during the week of the closures went unreturned and unheeded.


During the legislative testimony, Baroni stated that the lanes from Fort Lee constituted 25 percent of the access to the upper level of the bridge but were used almost exclusively by Fort Lee residents, constituting less than 5 percent of bridge traffic. Previously, the jury heard from Port Authority traffic specialists that 25 percent of vehicles on the upper level used the three Fort Lee lanes, many of them originating from other North Jersey towns.


Baroni also told lawmakers that the lane reductions were requested by leaders of the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association. Earlier this week, the jury heard Officers Paul Nunziato and Mike DeFillipis testify that Baroni asked them to falsely state that the lane reductions were their idea. The two testified that they had refused.


Exchanges in the video between Baroni and Wisniewski were particularly tense, with both men disagreeing, talking over and making cutting comments toward each other. Wisniewski complimented Baroni several times on his “valiant” attempts to dodge questions.

At one point, Baroni offered to take Wisniewski on a field trip to look at access lanes to the Lincoln Tunnel.


“Come on. I’ll even pack your lunch,” Baroni said.

“I would want to get it tested first,” Wisniewski responded.

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Judge finds probable cause in GWB complaint vs. Christie


Salvador Rizzo reports in The Record:


Governor Christie may have broken New Jersey law during the George Washington Bridge lane closures, a municipal court judge ruled Thursday.

Judge Roy F. McGeady of Bergen County found probable cause that Christie engaged in official misconduct during the 2013 lane closures and issued a summons for the governor to appear Oct. 24.  


An in-depth look at the scandal over the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge and related aftershocks. Click here to launch.

Probable cause is a relatively low bar in the legal system that allows law enforcement agencies to search, charge or arrest individuals suspected of wrongdoing, but it is not enough to prove guilt.

Christie said through a spokesman that he is appealing the ruling immediately and that the citizen who filed the court complaint against him is “a political activist with a history of abusing the judicial system.”
It is now up to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office to decide whether to pursue an indictment against Christie. A spokeswoman for acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal, a Christie appointee, declined to comment Thursday.

For years, Christie has denied any knowledge of the plot to close Fort Lee access lanes to the world’s busiest bridge. But lawyers for the prosecution and the defense in the ongoing Bridgegate trial have cast doubt on Christie’s assertions.

A former political operative for Christie who plotted the scheme, David Wildstein, testified in federal court that he discussed the lane closures with the governor during a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony at Ground Zero, while a massive traffic jam was paralyzing Fort Lee. Christie has said he does not recall Wildstein’s comments.

Wildstein is the main witness for the prosecution and says he is cooperating with U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman’s investigation in part because he hopes to avoid prison.

A former firefighter from Teaneck, Bill Brennan, filed a complaint against Christie in municipal court based on Wildstein’s testimony.
Brennan argues that Christie engaged in official misconduct because he should have reversed the lane closures once he became aware of them. Under state law, official misconduct is punishable by five to 10 years in prison.

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Kelly’s lawyer: She and Christie discussed plot beforehand

Bridget Anne Kelly and legal team leave federal court on Tuesday. Katherine Taylor for The New York Times

Kate Zernike of The New York Times
reports today:
Bridget Anne Kelly discussed the
George Washington Bridge lane closings with her boss, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, before they happened in
September 2013, her lawyer asserted in federal court here on Tuesday. She also
discussed them with him the week they were happening.
The lawyer, Michael Critchley, did
not elaborate on his cryptic claims, which he made while questioning a
prosecution witness.
Testimony in the trial has shown
that in the months after the lane closings, several of Mr. Christie’s top
advisers had told him that Ms. Kelly, his former deputy chief of staff, had
emails about the closings. Those people included his chief of staff, chief
counsel, press secretary, chief political adviser and an aide he had tapped to
lead the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey,
which runs the bridge.
Yet Mr. Christie, a Republican,
convened a staff meeting in December 2013 and angrily demanded to know if
anyone had knowledge or emails about the closings. An hour later, he held a
news conference where he said he was certain that none of his staff members had
any knowledge of or had been involved in the scheme.
When emails with Ms. Kelly’s name
appeared as a result of a legislative subpoena a month later, Mr. Christie held
another news conference and declared that she had lied to him.
It was, Mr.
Critchley said in court on Tuesday, a “sham.”
According to testimony in federal
court here, where Ms. Kelly and another former Christie aide, Bill Baroni, are
on trial for authorizing the lane closings and then covering them up, the
governor’s office was not much concerned about finding the truth about the
shutdown in the months after they took place.
Instead, the governor and his aides,
keenly aware of Mr. Christie’s presidential ambitions and how a scandal could
damage them, were more worried about keeping any evidence implicating his
office hidden.
Cross-examining
a former top Christie aide, Mr. Critchley offered tantalizing clues as to what
Ms. Kelly may say on the stand about what Mr. Christie knew about the closings,
which prosecutors say were meant to punish the mayor of  Fort Lee, N.J.,
for refusing to endorse the governor’s re-election. 
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Labor unions backing a NJ Republican in Congress? Yes.

Chris Opfer of Bloomberg’s Bureau of National Affairs reports:
Labor unions are spending some of their campaign cash on an unlikely ally as the election season heads into the final stretch: a New Jersey Republican running against a former Obama administration adviser.
Frank LoBiondo
Labor groups have chipped in about $316,000 toward Rep. Frank LoBiondo’s re-election campaign, more than unions have contributed to all but one other congressional candidate of either party this cycle. That’s also six times more than Democratic challenger Dave Cole has received in contributions from all sources in his uphill battle for LoBiondo’s seat.
The figures, compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics and based on disclosures through the second quarter of this year, don’t include outside spending by unions or dark money funneled through Super PACs. The contributions to the 11-term Republican come from some of the same labor organizations that are pushing to secure Democratic control of the Senate and to send Hillary Clinton to the White House.
“We’ve supported Frank LoBiondo for 20 years, and he’s supported us,” UNITE HERE Local 54 President Bob McDevitt told Bloomberg BNA. The union represents casino workers in Atlantic City, part of LoBiondo’s district. “We don’t discard political allies just because there’s someone else running from the Democratic party,” McDevitt added.
Labor groups told Bloomberg BNA that they’re backing LoBiondo based on their history with the candidate, not necessarily because he’s more aligned with them on the issues than Cole. They also noted that the South Jersey lawmaker has used his role as chair of a transportation subcommittee to fight against foreign airlines accused of trying to undercut U.S. air carriers by skirting labor laws. 

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Top Port Authority cops say Baroni wanted them to lie

Paul Nunziato, left, and Mike DeFilippis, right, leave federal court on Tuesday

Paul Berger reports for The Record:

Two top cops at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey described to a federal jury on Tuesday how one of Governor Christie’s allies embroiled them in a plot to cover up the politically-motivated closure of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge.


Paul Nunziato and Mike DeFilippis, the president and second vice-president of the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, said that Christie’s ally, Bill Baroni, told them to falsely take partial responsibility for the lane closures.

They said that when they refused, Baroni lied on their behalf anyway, telling New Jersey lawmakers that Nunziato and DeFilippis had requested lane changes at the bridge because of concerns over the safety of traffic officers.

Deborah Gramiccioni outside federal court 

Earlier in the day, jurors heard testimony from a former Christie aide, Deborah Gramiccioni, who described how the governor’s deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, became increasingly distraught as the true motivation for the lane closures began to spill out into the public during the winter of 2013 and as Governor Christie became increasingly angry.


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In New Jersey, how much affordable housing is enough?

         Karen Yi reports for the Asbury Park Press:


The past does matter,  according to one state judge.
Advocates for housing priced for people in the middle or at the lower end of the income scale are celebrating a ruling by Superior Court Judge Douglas K. Wolfson, sitting in Middlesex County, who said towns must account for a backlog of housing needs that accumulated when state oversight of such efforts failed.
The ruling comes weeks before New Jersey’s Supreme Court is expected to settle the question of whether municipalities should accommodate affordable-housing needs built up during a 16-year “gap period” when the state agency tasked with ensuring compliance disintegrated.
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