October 5, 2016 | No Comments
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters Wednesday that he never spoke with his New Jersey counterpart, Chris Christie, about whitewashing the 2013 Bridgegate scandal — his administration’s second day of responding to an assertion made in a federal courtroom in Newark.
Cuomo, a Democrat who has long observed an unofficial nonaggression pact with Christie, has been placed on the defensive by David Wildstein, a former Christie ally and authority appointee who pleaded guilty to closing lanes on the George Washington Bridge as an act of political retaliation against a Democratic mayor who declined to support Christie’s re-election.
Wildstein testified that he was told by two top Christie appointees that the governors coordinated on a false cover story to “put an end” to the lane-closing controversy.
Cuomo and his team immediately branded Wildstein as a lying felon and said his testimony — given under oath — was “false and delusional.”
But a lawyer in the case suggested that another witness, Scott Rechler — a respected Cuomo appointee to the Port Authority — will corroborate the post-scandal collaboration by the governors.
Wildstein said it was his impression that Cuomo and Christie told Pat Foye — the Cuomo-appointed executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages the bridge — to stand down. He said he was told that the governors agreed on the creation of a report that would back up the Christie-backed explanation that the lane closures had been part of a traffic study.
“It didn’t happen, and you know it didn’t happen because there was no report,” Cuomo told reporters after an event at the New-York Historical Society. “If there was a conversation where we said, we will do a report that does X, you know you would know? There would be a report.”
Cuomo’s chief of staff, Melissa DeRosa, attacked “totally irresponsible reporting yesterday from 3rd hand testimony based on nothing” after Wildstein on Wednesday said he had no actual way of knowing for certain whether the Cuomo-Christie conversation occurred.
Later, Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi issued the following statement: “It is well known that Pat Foye and his New Jersey counterparts were at odds on many issues for many years. However, there was no conversation between the Governors concerning a ‘plan’ to have Pat Foye stand down or have a report written. Pat Foye and the Governor have both said Mr. Wildstein’s account is inaccurate, he himself concedes its hearsay, and the supposed directives from it never happened: Mr. Foye never stood down and no report was ever prepared or issued.”
Cuomo’s aides did not respond to questions about whether Rechler — a real estate developer who is a close gubernatorial ally and donor, and Cuomo’s former vice chairman at the Port — would corroborate any aspect of Wildstein’s account.
While questions of what the governors knew and when they knew it are coloring the Bridgegate trial, the actual defendants are Bill Baroni, a former deputy executive director of the Port, and Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie’s deputy chief of staff.
Kelly’s lawyer, Michael Critchley, has sought to portray her as a lower-level figure who was not, as prosecutors say, responsible for engineering the Bridgegate coverup.
“Two top levelers: Chris Christie and Cuomo. They were both involved. They were both talking to each other. Talking what to do and how to do it,” Critchley said last month as the trial opened. “As a matter of fact, you’ll hear from Scott Rechler, who says he spoke with Cuomo, Cuomo said he spoke — Cuomo told him he spoke with Christie and that Christie was upset because Pat Foye was meddling in his campaign. Pat Foye, whether he says it or not, will have witnesses to say that he heard that Chris Christie was angry with him and wanted him fired.”
Foye’s attorney has said that Wildstein’s testimony “is not accurate.”
Rechler did not answer calls or emails seeking comment.
Here is a transcript of Cuomo’s exchange with reporters at the Historical Society, excluding some questions about sputtering plans to overhaul the Port and hire a new CEO.
Q: Just go back to the timeline on Bridgegate. Pretty early on after the lane closures, in September of 2013, Pat Foye at the Port Authority sent an email calling it a federal crime. We now know it was a federal crime. Do you still maintain you were not aware at that time? When did you find out? Was anybody ever held accountable for not telling you?
A: “Nothing has changed from the past two years, we’re just learning more facts.”
Q: David Wildstein said on the stand that it was his impression that you and Christie talked about telling officials to stand down in terms of what happened in Fort Lee. Did it happen?
A: “Sometimes there’s innuendo and you can’t prove it one way or another. Here there are facts. If I said, ‘I think Zack Fink has blond hair,’ then we could find out, because we could look at [NY1 reporter and brunette] Zack Fink and he doesn’t have blond hair so it’s not true. This came up last year. I don’t know who raised it last year, but the same gossip was spread last year, and it’s factually impossible. ‘Pat Foye, stand down.’ Pat Foye didn’t stand down. Pat Foye stood up. ‘The report would whitewash.’ There was no report done. So, there was no report, Pat Foye didn’t stand down, he stood up. Pat Foye says it’s untrue. Governor Christie says it’s untrue. And I believe the gentleman himself, Wildstein, said he wasn’t sure it happened. He had just heard it.”
Q: The issue is not whether there’s a report or he stood down. It’s whether you two governors discussed a report, or asking him to stand down. Did that happen?
A: “It didn’t happen, and you know it didn’t happen because there was no report. If there was a conversation where we said, we will do a report that does X, you know you would know? There would be a report.”
Q: How did you find out about Bridgegate?
A: “That was two years ago, Zack. I have to go back and look, but I found out basically when it became public.”
Q: If this is false, then why did David Wildstein even bring you into the picture?
A: “I don’t know. You’d have to ask Mr. Wildstein what the theory is and what they’re trying to communicate. I don’t watch it, frankly, in the way you guys do.”
Q: What was the substance of your conversations with Governor Christie regarding Bill Baroni’s 2013 testimony to the New Jersey Legislature when he claimed there wasn’t a legitimate traffic study?
A: “There was no conversation that I can remember.”
Q: Do you have a response to Rob Astorino, who claims you and Christie colluded against his campaign?
A: “He has no basis for it, but that hasn’t stopped him before.”
Q: Are you going to do anything to bolster what you just said, either with documents or in any other way?
A: “It’s sort of irrefutable, you know. It’s black and white. His point is, ‘I heard a story.’ Now, this is a person [Wildstein] who admitted that he’s committed a crime and he’s pled to a felony. ‘I heard a story that the governor said to the governor that Pat Foye should stand down and we’re going to do a report.’ That was not accurate. That’s gossip that he’s passing on, and in this situation we have the advantage of knowing that it is factually not true. Pat Foye did not stand down — if anything, he was the whistleblower. And there was no report done whatsoever. Whitewashed, accurate, colorful – no report. And then he says he doesn’t know that that ever happened, but he heard that. Yeah. So I, look: this is an ongoing drama in New Jersey with a lot of rumors and a lot of gossip and a lot of conspiracy theories and a lot of political connections, and I think that’s all playing out, and let it play out and then at the end of the trial we’ll know the facts. What I’m concerned about is getting the Port Authority reforms passed. This is all nice for the tabloids, right? And especially in New Jersey there’s a lot of political intrigue. At the end of the day, it’s going to be, did you pass the reforms to the Port Authority.”
Q: “How tight are you with Governor Christie?”
A: “I don’t even know. How do you define tight? Are you and I tight?”
Q: “However you define tight.”
A: “Tight like I am with you.”
Dana Rubinstein and Ryan Hutchins contributed reporting. The original version of this article has been updated with the statement from Azzopardi.