Christie Crime Digest-Volume IV

[Laxman]

103. A Little Something...

to brighten up a Monday morning. Sure to be another interesting day at the Federal Court House in Newark. Bridget will likely have a little 'splainin to do. Time for some cross-examination in Newark! Is it wrong that I'm smiling? (explain that one away Bridget)

Bridget Kelly back on stand in Bridgegate after notable first day

She cried, she laughed and did her best to explain the emails that appeared to paint her as a driving force in a rogue political operation.

But returning today for a second day of testimony, Bridget Anne Kelly still has yet to face her toughest questions, in what is expected to be a grueling cross examination by federal prosecutors into her alleged role in the Bridgegate scandal.

Kelly took the stand Friday to tell her side of the story for the first time and is still being quizzed by her lawyer, veteran defense attorney Michael Critchley, who presented a picture to the jury of a struggling single mother of four, with a high pressure job and a boss with a quick temper.

Soon, however, the three assistant U.S. attorneys who are prosecuting the case will have their turn. And they are expected to intensely grill Kelly on the emails and texts she sent before and after the September 2013 lane closures at the George Washington Bridge that raised a lot of questions.

The government alleges the lane shutdowns were orchestrated as an act of political retribution to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich with massive traffic jams, in retaliation for his refusal to endorse Gov. Chris Christie for re-election. On trial with Kelly is Bill Baroni, the one-time deputy executive director of the Port Authority, which operates the George Washington Bridge.

A former deputy chief of staff to Christie, Kelly spoke last week of the day-to-day back-stage political dealings she said she was only vaguely aware of, including what she called a "crazy plan" by David Wildstein, a long-time Republican operative who boasted of his connections with the governor. She said she didn't realize until it was too late that there may have been a more sinister motive to the lane closures.

The plan involved a temporary and unannounced realignment of toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge. She testified that she believed the lane closures were part of a legitimate traffic study proposed by Wildstein, a $150,000-a-year patronage appointee at the Port Authority and a zealous supporter of the governor.
She said Wildstein told her he wanted to eliminate two out of three toll lanes earmarked for local Fort Lee traffic. Kelly explained to jurors that Wildstein said he believed the dedicated lanes were unfair and caused traffic from the main approaches to the bridge to back up because there there were not enough toll lanes at the plaza to what is the busiest bridge in the world.

Kelly said Wildstein told her the local access lanes were created at part of a backroom political deal with a former mayor of Fort Lee decades ago. The former mayor owned a bank and there was traffic backup in front of that bank, the local lanes helped to eliminate the bottleneck.

Wildstein told her that while there would be some initial traffic issues in Fort Lee, drivers would soon adapt. And in the end, Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo would ultimately be able to claim credit for fixing congestion at the bridge, bringing quicker access into New York, Kelly testified. Wildstein said he even wanted to post big banners and signs touting the governors' success, she testified.

Kelly testified that Wildstein asked her to get the governor's approval and said Christie was fine with it when she mentioned it to him. "Typical Wally," she said the governor remarked, referring to Wildstein's former pen name as an anonymous political blogger when he wrote under the name of Wally Edge.

Christie has repeatedly denied having any advance knowledge of the plan. On Friday, his spokesman released a statement refuting Kelly's testimony.

According to Kelly, she let Wildstein know the governor had given his approval for the traffic study by simply acknowledging his prediction that there would be some initial traffic issues when the lane reductions were implements.

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," she wrote to Wildstein.

"If I had said 'time for a traffic study,' we wouldn't have all known each other," she told jurors.

Wildstein, though, has testified that that there was never actually a traffic study. He claimed it was always intended as retribution against Sokolich and that Kelly and Baroni were in on the plan from the beginning. He has pleaded guilty in the case and has served as the key witness for the prosecution.

But those are not the only words Kelly needs to explain.

Read it here: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2016/10/kelly_back_on_the_stand_today_in_bridgegate_what_w.html#incart_2box_nj-homepage-featured