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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBridget Kelly Will Apparently Spill The Beans ....
on Governor Christie! Her attorney let on in cross-examination of a witness today that she will testify that she discussed the lane closures with Christie BEFORE they happened. Looks like somebody lied to the U.S. Attorney. That does not look good for Mr. Trump's Goon-in-Chief, does it. Mr. Christie appeared visibly concerned to hear that, Ms. Gramiccioni testified in U.S. District Court in Newark on Tuesday. Oh now, did he?
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie learned of lane closures at the George Washington Bridge before they occurred, an attorney said in court Tuesday.
Michael Critchley, who represents defendant Bridget Kelly, indicated through his questioning of a witness that his client, a former deputy chief of staff to the governor, had conversations with Mr. Christie about the closures both before they happened and while they were occurring.
Did you know that Bridget Kelly and the governor had discussions about the lane closures before they occurred? said Mr. Critchley.
The witness, a former Port Authority executive, said she didnt.
Mr. Critchley continued, Did you know that Bridget Kelly and the governor had discussions about the lane closures [while] they were occurring?
She said she didnt.
While a previous witness and a federal prosecutor have said the governor learned of the lane closures while they were occurring, the attorneys statements Tuesday were the first mention so far of earlier conversations the governor had about the closures. If true, the detail would undermine Mr. Christies yearslong insistence that he was blind-sided by the involvement of his close aide in the lane closures.
According to previous testimony, Mr. Christie learned of the closures on Sept. 11, 2013, just before a commemoration ceremony at the World Trade Center site, during a discussion with David Wildstein, a former Port Authority official who has pleaded guilty for his role in the closures, and Bill Baroni, who is on trial for his alleged role.
Prosecutors say Mr. Baroni, former deputy executive director of the Port Authority, and Ms. Kelly used closed lanes to create traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., to punish the boroughs Democratic mayor for not endorsing Mr. Christie, a Republican.
Spokesmen for Mr. Christie didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. The governor hasnt been accused of wrongdoing and has denied all knowledge of the closures. He has also said if someone had told him of traffic on the bridge, there was no indication of something unusual.
The lane-closure trial started its fourth week Tuesday with testimony from Deborah Gramiccioni, a former federal prosecutor who Mr. Christie appointed as deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey when he announced the resignation of Mr. Baroni in December 2013. Ms. Gramiccioni, who went to law school with Mr. Baroni and said she considered him a friend, testified about events in December 2013, when the governors office was struggling to contain the fallout from the closures.
Ms. Gramiccioni testified that the evening before Mr. Christie gave a news conference denying his staffs knowledge of or involvement in the closures, she went to talk to him.
I told him that there was a humI used the word humthat Bridget was on emails related to the lane closures, said witness Ms. Gramiccioni, referring to Bridget Kelly, a defendant in the lane-closure trial. And I knew that because Id spoken to Bill Baroni, she added, referring to the trials other defendant, whom she was to replace at the bistate agency.
Read the rest here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/witness-recounts-christies-efforts-to-contain-fallout-from-bridge-scandal-1476202740
Beach Rat
(273 posts)Trials are amazing things, aren't they? Is it wrong that I'm smiling?
world wide wally
(21,836 posts)forest444
(5,902 posts)It's too bad for Trump that when Crisco told himself he'd shed 100 unwanted pounds, he was referring to Bridget Kelly.
whathehell
(30,460 posts)forest444
(5,902 posts)Glad you liked it.
whathehell
(30,460 posts)Thanks for the laugh.
calimary
(89,967 posts)forest444
(5,902 posts)Crisco is and has always been a third-world style thug; he's just always managed to keep enough fingerprints from being detected - and more importantly, the senseless support of our corporate media - to stay out of trouble.
It would be nice to have official witness corroboration to what so many in New Jersey have known for so long: that's he's a thug, plain and simple.
uponit7771
(93,532 posts)malaise
(295,928 posts)We knew that from day one
Laxman
(2,431 posts)but I'm not counting this as done until it is-then Christie will be done.
spanone
(141,553 posts)AwakeAtLast
(14,315 posts)Sorry, couldn't resist...
Yallow
(1,926 posts)Let's see how far their bullying will take them in cell 29.
TonyPDX
(962 posts)Native
(7,358 posts)He knew he was going down, and the only hope was a Trump presidency pulling strings for him. No wonder he was so eager to play the manservant.
Scalded Nun
(1,688 posts)mountain grammy
(29,018 posts)lindysalsagal
(22,903 posts)Feels gooooood!
ailsagirl
(24,287 posts)The Wizard
(13,724 posts)Your hemlock is ready.
Mike Critchley is one of the best lawyers in New Jersey, and he takes no prisoners.
annabanana
(52,804 posts)I never understand how they think they can get away with it..
86derps
(44 posts)Think of all the money Christie has wasted to promote himself at the expense of the New Jersey taxpayer. What a horrible human.
Cha
(318,948 posts)Thank you!
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)whathehell
(30,460 posts)His character is in inverse proportion to Julia waistline.
Jopin Klobe
(779 posts)... stay away from construction sites that are using a lot of concrete ...
... and small planes ...
... and dark alleys ...
... and New Jersey/New York ...
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)A list of charges...From conspiracy to lying to investigators to god knows what else...I hope they have prison orange big enough.
Coolest Ranger
(2,034 posts)has been laying low
Laxman
(2,431 posts)a little worse, Item #1 from the Christie Crime Digest is not quite dead yet.
Though both parties reached a $1.5 million settlement earlier this month following years of costly litigation, a high-profile whistleblower case between a former Hunterdon County prosecutor and the administration of Gov. Chris Christie may yet get a closer look from members of the New Jersey legislature.
Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Morris), chairman of the lower houses Judiciary Committee, called last week for a full public airing of details of the settlement, which ended a drawn-out legal battle between Ben Barlyn, a former assistant prosecutor, and the state. The case concerned Barlyns claim that he was wrongfully fired six years ago after speaking out against the Christie administrations quashing of a set of indictments to help political allies.
McKeon also introduced a bill on Friday that would bar public entities and public employees from entering into the kind of confidential agreement on whistleblower lawsuits that Barlyn and the state reached, and which has kept much of case material that was uncovered through the litigation from being released.
The very essence of the whistleblower statute is to encourage the public discourse of whether it was corruption or wrongdoing or whatever. It's counterintuitive that the litigation as part of a settlement should be stifled, McKeon told NJ Spotlight.
The calls from the ranking lawmaker have the potential to shed more light on the recently-closed case, which began in 2010 after Barlyn complained that the withdrawal of indictments by then-Attorney General Paula Dow of three Republican law enforcement officials Hunterdon County Sheriff Deborah Trout, Undersheriff Michael Russo, and former sheriffs Investigator John Falat Jr. was politically motivated.
All three had been indicted in May, 2010 on 43 counts of official misconduct, including failure to conduct proper background checks, forcing employees to sign loyalty oaths, and making a false law enforcement badge for Robert Hariri, the CEO at Celgene Cellular Therapeutics and prominent political donor who had given $6,800 to Christie's first gubernatorial campaign.
Barlyn, along with fellow assistant prosecutors Charles Ouslander and William McGovern, had presided over the investigation. But Barlyn said that his office was overridden, when Dow, in what many experts have since agreed was an unusual move, took over the case and three months later convinced a judge to dismiss the indictments, citing legal and factual deficiencies.
Eventually, Barlyn was suspended for insubordination and later fired for what the prosecutors office characterized as issues with job performance. But hes maintained that it was his questioning of the quashed indictments, as well as his suspicion that they might have been motivated by Hariris connections with Christie or Trouts friendship with Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, whose campaign she supported in 2009, that led to his removal.
The controversy made national headlines over the past several months and at one point looked like it might rise to the level of another high-profile corruption case: Bridgegate, the closing of commuter lanes at the George Washington Bridge in 2013. Barlyn himself has pointed to parallels between that case and his own, arguing that both involve allegations of corruption at the bistate Port Authority and the misuse of political authority by the Christie administration.
He said his allegations implicate both Dow, who went on to a job at the Port Authority, and Christies former chief of staff Richard Bagger, who became an authority commissioner.
Read the rest here: http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/16/10/10/new-scrutiny-for-whistleblower-case-involving-christie-administration/
Botany
(77,292 posts)Michael Critchley, who represents defendant Bridget Kelly, indicated through his questioning of a
witness that his client, a former deputy chief of staff to the governor, had conversations with Mr.
Christie about the closures both before they happened and while they were occurring.
Then Chrisite should be removed as Governor ASAP.
raging moderate
(4,624 posts)Christie has no right to deny his part in this despicable episode.
calimary
(89,967 posts)flamingdem
(40,886 posts)barbtries
(31,306 posts)but i've always thought the whole debacle was christie's brainchild.
Laxman
(2,431 posts)to come to that conclusion. If you've followed Christie for any length of time you know some certain truths about the man and his governing style. He is mean,vindictive, he is all about himself, he will punish anyone who he deems to have crossed him. He is a sociopath. When you understand that, all of the unfathomable stupidity of Bridgegate suddenly makes sense. I've written this before:
Consider this. Christie and his administration used state assets to promote his run for president. They regarded the power at their disposal as a tool for Christie's political advancement and collaterally their own promotion as they hitched a ride aboard the Christie train to the top. It's been established at the Bridgegate trial that they kept spread sheets for local leaders grading them on their support for Christie's policies and their potential for exploitation in advancing Christie's personal star. This administration also engaged in what can only be described as sociopathic behavior in punishing entire populations when local leaders didn't fall into line. The consequences to the populace were merely ancillary and inconsequential to them in the real power game that they were playing where only Christie's fortunes were important.
This is what Bridgegate is all about. The punishment of hundreds of thousands of people as secondary damage from the real aim, which was to send a political message to the mayor of a mid-sized suburban town who wouldn't play ball. That's sick, but also emblematic of the way the Christie administration operates and hardly the only example. Selling out the state to Exxon-Mobil. Withholding state aid for important road construction projects from an entire town if the mayor crossed Christie in any way. Using the assets of the Port Authority to woo supporters. Extorting benefits like the Chairman's Flight or campaign donations from corporations needing government investment in public facilities. Everything is transactional. Christie's welfare is always the selling price.
He is just a bad person.
barbtries
(31,306 posts)well i hope if we're right, it comes out.