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Laxman

(2,431 posts)
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 03:16 PM Oct 2016

Bridget 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?

Defense Attorney: Christie Learned of Lane Closures Before They Occurred

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 didn’t.

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 didn’t.

While a previous witness and a federal prosecutor have said the governor learned of the lane closures while they were occurring, the attorney’s statements Tuesday were the first mention so far of earlier conversations the governor had about the closures. If true, the detail would undermine Mr. Christie’s 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 borough’s Democratic mayor for not endorsing Mr. Christie, a Republican.

Spokesmen for Mr. Christie didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The governor hasn’t 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 governor’s 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 staff’s knowledge of or involvement in the closures, she went to talk to him.

“I told him that there was a hum—I used the word hum—that 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 I’d spoken to Bill Baroni,” she added, referring to the trial’s 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
38 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Bridget Kelly Will Apparently Spill The Beans .... (Original Post) Laxman Oct 2016 OP
Houston, we have a problem! Beach Rat Oct 2016 #1
Trump / Christie '16 cellmates! world wide wally Oct 2016 #2
If they'll fit! forest444 Oct 2016 #17
Lol.. whathehell Oct 2016 #20
Ah, it is what it is. forest444 Oct 2016 #22
You bet...The mental image is perfect, lol. whathehell Oct 2016 #26
Ouch. Wonder if she's about to return the favor? calimary Oct 2016 #32
She certainly should. forest444 Oct 2016 #33
lol uponit7771 Oct 2016 #30
Of course he did malaise Oct 2016 #3
Yes We Did..... Laxman Oct 2016 #4
take him down.... spanone Oct 2016 #5
and lock him up AwakeAtLast Oct 2016 #28
K&R ffr Oct 2016 #6
Maybe Christie And Trump Will Be In The Same Cell Block Yallow Oct 2016 #7
It will take more than a platter of meatball sandwiches to take the Gov's mind off of this. TonyPDX Oct 2016 #8
Well, that gives one explanation for Christie attaching himself to Trump - he needed protection Native Oct 2016 #9
It is always so much fun watching rats desert a sinking ship. (eom) Scalded Nun Oct 2016 #10
I wish I was there. I'd love to see this trial. mountain grammy Oct 2016 #11
They're all getting SOME of what's coming to them. lindysalsagal Oct 2016 #12
Couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy n/t ailsagirl Oct 2016 #13
Attention Chris Christie The Wizard Oct 2016 #14
And . . . there's HIS other shoe! annabanana Oct 2016 #15
Wasted Money 86derps Oct 2016 #16
Wow.. Laxman.. after all this time.. there is Justice! Cha Oct 2016 #18
Someone posted earlier that Christie flew over the bridge in a helicopter to laugh at the chaos. Spitfire of ATJ Oct 2016 #19
Petty and vindictive.. whathehell Oct 2016 #23
Advice to Bridget Kelly ... Jopin Klobe Oct 2016 #21
If she has emails and/or recordings....Christie will be going to prison beachbumbob Oct 2016 #24
Maybe that's why big boy Coolest Ranger Oct 2016 #25
Just To Make Mr. Christie's Very Bad Day.... Laxman Oct 2016 #27
If the following is true: Botany Oct 2016 #29
I think she ought to sing like a canary! raging moderate Oct 2016 #31
Is it wrong that I'm smiling? calimary Oct 2016 #34
Just another present from the GOP! flamingdem Oct 2016 #35
i guess this makes me a little tin foil hattie, barbtries Oct 2016 #36
No Tin Foil Hat Needed.... Laxman Oct 2016 #37
thank you. barbtries Oct 2016 #38

Beach Rat

(273 posts)
1. Houston, we have a problem!
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 03:43 PM
Oct 2016

Trials are amazing things, aren't they? Is it wrong that I'm smiling?

forest444

(5,902 posts)
17. If they'll fit!
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 05:52 PM
Oct 2016

It's too bad for Trump that when Crisco told himself he'd shed 100 unwanted pounds, he was referring to Bridget Kelly.

forest444

(5,902 posts)
33. She certainly should.
Wed Oct 12, 2016, 12:00 AM
Oct 2016

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.

Laxman

(2,431 posts)
4. Yes We Did.....
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 04:20 PM
Oct 2016

but I'm not counting this as done until it is-then Christie will be done.

 

Yallow

(1,926 posts)
7. Maybe Christie And Trump Will Be In The Same Cell Block
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 04:40 PM
Oct 2016

Let's see how far their bullying will take them in cell 29.

TonyPDX

(962 posts)
8. It will take more than a platter of meatball sandwiches to take the Gov's mind off of this.
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 04:40 PM
Oct 2016

Native

(7,358 posts)
9. Well, that gives one explanation for Christie attaching himself to Trump - he needed protection
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 04:57 PM
Oct 2016

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.

The Wizard

(13,724 posts)
14. Attention Chris Christie
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 05:27 PM
Oct 2016

Your hemlock is ready.
Mike Critchley is one of the best lawyers in New Jersey, and he takes no prisoners.

annabanana

(52,804 posts)
15. And . . . there's HIS other shoe!
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 05:29 PM
Oct 2016

I never understand how they think they can get away with it..

 

86derps

(44 posts)
16. Wasted Money
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 05:36 PM
Oct 2016

Think of all the money Christie has wasted to promote himself at the expense of the New Jersey taxpayer. What a horrible human.

 

Spitfire of ATJ

(32,723 posts)
19. Someone posted earlier that Christie flew over the bridge in a helicopter to laugh at the chaos.
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 05:53 PM
Oct 2016

Jopin Klobe

(779 posts)
21. Advice to Bridget Kelly ...
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 06:08 PM
Oct 2016

... 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)
24. If she has emails and/or recordings....Christie will be going to prison
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 06:10 PM
Oct 2016

A list of charges...From conspiracy to lying to investigators to god knows what else...I hope they have prison orange big enough.

Laxman

(2,431 posts)
27. Just To Make Mr. Christie's Very Bad Day....
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 06:39 PM
Oct 2016

a little worse, Item #1 from the Christie Crime Digest is not quite dead yet.

New Scrutiny for Whistleblower Case

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 house’s 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 Barlyn’s claim that he was wrongfully fired six years ago after speaking out against the Christie administration’s 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 sheriff’s 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 prosecutor’s office characterized as issues with job performance. But he’s maintained that it was his questioning of the quashed indictments, as well as his suspicion that they might have been motivated by Hariri’s connections with Christie or Trout’s 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 Christie’s 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)
29. If the following is true:
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 06:54 PM
Oct 2016

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)
31. I think she ought to sing like a canary!
Tue Oct 11, 2016, 10:43 PM
Oct 2016

Christie has no right to deny his part in this despicable episode.

barbtries

(31,306 posts)
36. i guess this makes me a little tin foil hattie,
Wed Oct 12, 2016, 07:47 AM
Oct 2016

but i've always thought the whole debacle was christie's brainchild.

Laxman

(2,431 posts)
37. No Tin Foil Hat Needed....
Wed Oct 12, 2016, 08:41 AM
Oct 2016

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:

It's the culmination of 7 years of government mismanagement and purposeful hijacking of the workings of state government by Christie and his demented band of pirates that have appropriated the state for the promotion of this egotistical buffoon's personal well-being. These are people who view governing and policy as a game to be played with winners and losers determined by who moves ahead or who gets the spoils, not as a necessary function of a civilized society. The actual operation of the state is just an afterthought. Time and again they've demonstrated their disdain and disregard for the citizens of the state and this time there may have been some real consequences.

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.
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