NEWARK, N.J. _ New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was told that Fort Lee was choking in traffic and that the panicking mayor of Fort Lee was not getting his calls returned as the politically motivated lane-closing plot unfolded at the George Washington Bridge in September 2013, the prosecution's chief witness testified Tuesday.
Bill Baroni, Christie's top executive appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge, and David Wildstein, Baroni's lieutenant at the agency, briefed the governor about the gridlock in Fort Lee as they attended a memorial service on the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in Manhattan, Wildstein testified.
"Were you and Mr. Baroni bragging," asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Cortes.
"Yes, very much so," Wildstein said.
Why, the prosecutor continued.
"This was our 'one constituent,'" Wildstein said, referring to a rule he followed that the only person who mattered at the Port Authority was the governor. " I was pleasing our one constituent. I was happy that he was happy."
On the witness stand in federal court in Newark for a third day, Wildstein is testifying at the trial of two former allies of Christie: Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority, and Bridget Anne Kelly, the governor's former deputy chief of staff.
Wildstein has said he is hopeful that his agreement to testify truthfully for the government will be rewarded with a sentence that does not include prison. He pleaded guilty last year to charges he conspired with Baroni and Kelly to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for refusing to endorse Christie's 2013 re-election campaign.
Last week, in his opening statement, a prosecutor said Wildstein and Baroni "bragged" to the governor on the third day of the lane closings that they had been done to "mess" with Sokolich because he had refused to endorse Christie's reelection campaign.
