September 28, 2016 | No Comments
NEWARK — Gov. Chris Christie’s chief spokesman learned the true nature of the George Washington Bridge lane closures before the Republican governor publicly said he’d become aware of the details and fired his deputy chief of staff, according to the admitted mastermind of the political revenge plot.
David Wildstein, who has already pleaded guilty in the case, told jurors in federal court Wednesday that he met with press secretary Michael Drewniak on Dec. 4, 2013, and confessed his involvement in the closures and said he needed to resign.
“I told him that others in the governor’s office had been involved in planning — had approved the planning,” Wildstein said during his testimony in U.S. District Court. “And I relayed to him the conversation I had with Governor Christie on September 11.”
Wildstein, during his testimony on Tuesday, said that he and Bill Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told Christie during a Sept. 11 memorial event about the ongoing traffic issues in Fort Lee, whose Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich, had not endorsed Christie’s reelection campaign. Christie, Wildstein told jurors, laughed about the situation.
On Wednesday, Wildstein said he told Drewniak, “that this was political retaliation for Mayor Sokolich not endorsing Governor Christie’s campaign.”
“He was quite upset and said he would speak to Kevin O’Dowd,” Wildstein said, referring to the governor’s chief of staff at the time.
Wildstein said he got a call from Charlie McKenna, Christie’s chief counsel, a day later and the two met on Dec. 6. He did not say what he disclosed to McKenna, other than that the lane closures were his idea. He said he agreed to announce his resignation by the end of the day.
Throughout the scandal, Drewniak has maintained he knew nothing of the lane closures prior to or as they occurred. After that, he promulgated the idea that the lane closures were part of a seemingly fictitious traffic study.
A report commissioned by Christie’s office and led by attorney Randy Mastro shows Drewniak inundated with press calls regarding the lane closures in September 2013 and growing increasingly anxious about the scandal. The report details a meeting Drewniak had at Drumthwacket with the governor’s legal team prior to the now-famous marathon press conference Christie held in January 2014.
“At the time, Drewniak was not concerned about what would happen to him because he was not personally involved in, and did not have any prior knowledge of, the lane realignment,” the Mastro report stated. “Drewniak clarified that he might have been concerned at the time that the Office would let him go because of the statements in his emails about reporters, but not because he had any involvement with the lane realignment.”
The January 9th press conference ran for more than two hours and featured the normally combative Christie offering an apology for the scandal, though still denying any knowledge of it as it was happening. Christie said he had learned of the details of the scheme and involvement from members of his staff just the day before, when private emails and texts were released after being subpoenaed by a legislative committee.
“I was blindsided,” the governor said at the time.
Wildstein is testifying against Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff. They were indicted last May on charges of conspiracy, fraud and civil rights violations.
They are accused of closing local access lanes to the bridge — the world’s busiest — to punish Sokolich for not endorsing Christie in his 2013 re-election bid. The bridge is located in Fort Lee, and the lane closures caused days of gridlock in the Bergen County town and surrounding communities.
Wildstein, who was the Port’s director of interstate capital projects, has already pleaded guilty and implicated the two others. His attorney says there is evidence to prove the governor knew about the plot when it was occurring.
Christie, who is currently a top adviser to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has denied any knowledge or involvement in this incident.
— Additional reporting contributed by David Giambusso