Christie Crime Digest-Volume IV

[Laxman]

36. Wildstein And Baroni....

couldn't be fired and Baroni ordered his assistants to ignore calls from Fort Lee mayor Sokolich because "the phone bills were too high". Really.

Bridgegate trial: N.Y. Port Authority chief says Christie protected his people

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s top executive at the Port Authority acknowledged Thursday that he couldn’t fire the New Jersey staffer who orchestrated the politically motivated lane closings at the George Washington Bridge because he was protected by Governor Christie.

Under cross-examination for the second day, Patrick Foye, the agency’s executive director, sparred with defense attorneys for Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni, two Christie allies on trial in federal court in Newark for allegedly conspiring with David Wildstein to create gridlock at the bridge to punish Fort Lee’s mayor for not endorsing Christie’s 2013 reelection.
Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority, outside federal court on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016.
Amy newman/staff photographer
Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly outside federal court on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016.
Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority, outside federal court on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016.
AMY NEWMAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
John Ma, chief of staff to the Port Authority’s executive director, outside federal court on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016.

Asked whether he could fire Wildstein, Foye said: “It’s complicated.”

Here's where it gets good....

Ma and the next witness, Tina Lado, a Port Authority official who works to mitigate the impact of agency projects in host communities, both testified that before the Fort Lee lane closures Baroni had always been responsive to local officials.

Baroni was always very interested, supportive and involved, Lado said, describing his relationship with local officials in Fort Lee, Weehawken and Perth Amboy.

During the week of gridlock caused by the local lane reductions in Fort Lee, Sokolich testified that Baroni ignored his repeated efforts to reach him and get him to reopen the lanes.

Contrary to the agency’s practice, Lado said there was no advance notification to Fort Lee about the lane closures and that she only got word the Friday before they were implemented the following Monday.

When Fort Lee’s administrator called to say that the traffic standstill had hampered efforts to find a missing child and respond to a cardiac arrest, Lado said her queries to Baroni and Wildstein went unanswered.

She finally did hear from Baroni two days later after inquiring whether she should return the mayor’s calls. In coded language, he told her that had looked at her unit’s phone bills and they were rather high "so we had to be careful and not make unnecessary calls outside, particularly to New Jersey.

She said she understood that to mean "he did not want me to call back."