NEWARK, N.J. _ Federal prosecutors on Wednesday suggested jurors should not believe Bridget Anne Kelly's version of the George Washington Bridge lane-closure saga, because doing so would mean that seven witnesses had lied under oath in federal court here.
Kelly, a former deputy chief of staff to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, quickly shot back that many of those witnesses' "livelihoods depend on Chris Christie."
In an 11th-hour twist to the case, U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton said prosecutors do not have to prove that Kelly and another former Christie aide intended to punish a local mayor for refusing to endorse the Republican governor in order to convict.
Rather, Wigenton told prosecutors and defense attorneys behind closed doors late Tuesday, the government must prove that Kelly and Bill Baroni, Christie's former top appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, intentionally conspired to misuse the agency's resources in 2013.
Kelly, the last witness in the trial, took the stand Wednesday on the 25th day of testimony.
During a dramatic hour of cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna suggested that Kelly attempted to evade prosecution by deleting emails and text messages related to the lane closures.
If David Wildstein, a cooperating witness who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges last year, hadn't saved various emails and texts, "you would never have had to explain them, right?" Khanna asked. "Because they wouldn't have existed."
The U.S. Attorney's Office wouldn't have seen the documents, Khanna asked, "and this jury would never have seen them either, right?"
"I would guess not," Kelly replied.
Kelly has testified that Wildstein, a former Port Authority official, told her in June 2013 that he was working with Port Authority engineers and police on a traffic study. She also says she informed Christie and his chief of staff about the idea for a study, and that the governor signed off on it.
The September "traffic study" _ in which the Port Authority reduced the number of lanes available to people commuting to the bridge from Fort Lee, Bergen County, from three to one _ resulted in days of gridlock.
Kelly has told jurors she deleted bridge-related messages in December 2013 because Christie and others had suddenly appeared to have forgotten about their knowledge of the lane closures.
Christie has denied having previous or contemporaneous knowledge of the closures.
"No one told me to delete any of them," Kelly testified Wednesday, her voice shaking. "I deleted them because I was scared."
Khanna, the prosecutor, focused in part on a Sept. 12, 2013, email exchange between Kelly and her aide Christina Renna. The lanes were closed from Sept. 9 to Sept. 13.
Renna had sent Kelly an email explaining that Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich had called the governor's office to express concern about "a horrendous traffic backup," first responders' difficulty maneuvering around town, and a "feeling in town" that the lane reductions were "government retribution for something."
The staffer "told the fine mayor he was unaware that the toll lanes were closed, but he would see what he could find out," Renna wrote.
"Good," Kelly responded, explaining Wednesday that she was pleased the staffer planned to follow up with Sokolich.
Kelly deleted the exchange _ but not the version she had forwarded to Wildstein, which didn't include her "good" response.
The government learned about the response only because Renna had preserved a copy.
"This one _ without the 'good' response _ this one you didn't delete?" Khanna asked.
"I missed it," Kelly said.
At another point, Kelly testified that she had been forthright with her superiors in the governor's office about her deleting of messages, and now at trial as well.
Renna testified this month that Kelly called her on Dec. 12, 2013, and told her to delete the "good" email.
"And that is incorrect," Kelly told jurors Wednesday when asked about the testimony.
That's when Khanna mentioned the other witnesses who had contradicted Kelly, and, according to her, lied.
Another potentially important development in the trial took place Tuesday after the jury was dismissed.
Wigenton, the judge, ruled that the government was not "beholden to simply saying" the objective of the conspiracy "was one thing."
"It appears that the overall objective was obviously misusing Port Authority resources," Wigenton told prosecutors and defense attorneys, according to a court transcript.
Whether Kelly and Baroni misused Port Authority resources to punish Sokolich for his refusal to endorse Christie "goes more to motive," Wigenton said. "And so that aspect of it I do not think needs to be part of the charge because it goes beyond what the object of the conspiracy is."
Defense attorneys objected to the proposed jury instructions.
"Judge, I don't even know right now, and I say this respectfully, what I'm defending," Michael Critchley Sr., Kelly's attorney, told Wigenton, according to the transcript. "I thought I was defending a charge that at its core, beginning to end, was an allegation that Bridget Kelly and Mr. Baroni entered into activity to intentionally punish Mayor Sokolich for not endorsing."
Baroni's attorney, Michael Baldassare, added that a conspiracy case such as this requires an objective. Otherwise, "we're punishing thought crime," he said.
Prosecutors "tried a punishment case. Are they really going to get up in closing and say: 'Well, they really just wanted to use _ move the cones. They really just wanted to use the property of the extra asphalt,'" Baldassare said. "It's not what this is about. It's always been about punishment."
The indictment says the object of the conspiracy was "to misuse Port Authority property to facilitate and conceal the causing of traffic problems in Fort Lee as punishment of Mayor Sokolich."
The actual crime alleged, though, is a violation of statute: that Kelly and Baroni conspired to misapply property at an organization (the Port Authority) that received at least $10,000 in federal aid in 2013.
Wigenton told jurors Wednesday that evidence of a defendant's motive could be used to determine their intent _ and thus whether they committed a crime.
She also said they could return "not guilty" verdicts if jurors found that Kelly and Baroni acted in good faith: that is, that they honestly understood the traffic study to be legitimate, not a fiction created to cover up a crime.
Wigenton instructed jurors that they may not draw any inference from the fact that certain individuals haven't appeared at trial.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys have repeatedly mentioned the names of individuals who weren't charged or called as witnesses, such as Christie; Kevin O'Dowd, the governor's chief of staff; and Bill Stepien, Christie's campaign manager.
