Former Chris Christie Aide: Christie Knew About ‘Traffic Problems In Fort Lee’ (VIDEO)

Bridget Anne Kelly (screengrab courtesy NBC News)
Bridget Anne Kelly (screengrab courtesy NBC News)

The political career of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie may have ended on Friday. The former aide who sent the now-infamous email greenlighting the shutdown of lanes on the George Washington Bridge at Fort Lee testified that Christie had known about them for over a month.

You may know that on August 13, 2013; Christie’s deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, fired off an email to Port Authority commissioner David Wildstein saying, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” Less than a month later, all but one toll lane for an entrance to the bridge at Fort Lee was shut down. The lanes remained closed for four days, causing massive gridlock and delaying first responders.

Wildstein pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme in May 2015. He told federal prosecutors that he, Kelly, and another longtime Christie aide, Port Authority deputy executive director Bill Baroni, conspired to close the lanes in order to punish Fort Lee mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing Christie’s 2013 reelection bid. In part due to this information, Kelly and Baroni were indicted on charges of defrauding the Port Authority, wire fraud, and trampling on the civil rights of the people of Fort Lee.

However, on the stand, Kelly tried to throw Wildstein under the bus. Under questioning from her attorney, Michael Crichtley, she testified that Wildstein told her that the Port Authority was planning a traffic study in hopes of easing congestion on the George Washington Bridge, the busiest motor vehicle bridge in the world. According to Kelly, Wildstein asked her to brief Christie on the matter because of the potential for massive congestion. He also planned to have Christie take credit for the study if it was a success.

Kelly testified that she met with Christie on August 12, 2013. She said that when she told Christie about the study, Christie asked, “OK. When are they doing this?” Kelly replied that she believed it would happen “imminently,” and that there would almost certainly be traffic problems there. According to Kelly, Christie replied, “Alright.” When Kelly told Christie of the plan to have Christie take credit, Christie replied, “That’s typical Wally”–using Wildstein’s nickname when he was the editor of PolitickerNJ. She also looked into the governor’s relationship with Sokolich. It was only then, she said, that she learned that Sokolich would not endorse Christie’s reelection.

Kelly added that per Christie’s instructions, she had lunch with her immediate supervisor, chief of staff Kevin O’Dowd, the following day. She said that O’Dowd told her that as long as Christie was fine with the study, he had no problem with it. It was then that she fired off her now-infamous email. She maintained that the email was not “a code for punishment,” but simply an echo of what Wildstein told her.

She was very emotional on the stand, a marked contrast to her demeanor on the second day of the closures. When Wildstein texted Kelly that Sokolich complained that the traffic jam was snarling up school traffic, Kelly replied, “Is it wrong that I’m smiling?”

Crichtley spoke with reporters about Kelly’s potentially explosive testimony later that day. The (Bergen) Record got a clip.

Crichtley said that Kelly was merely stating “the truth as she knows it” about the closures, and hinted there would be more details when Kelly returns to the stand on Monday.

Christie has a lot of reason to be afraid. He has maintained that he had no knowledge of these closures. But if Kelly’s testimony is to be believed, at the very least Christie should have made it his business to make sure this traffic study was indeed legitimate, given the massive congestion it would cause in Fort Lee. Had he bothered to take an even cursory look at what Wildstein and Baroni had in mind, he would have discovered that it was actually a betrayal of the most sacred trust in a democracy–that government does not willfully put you in harm’s way.

In other words, if Kelly is telling the truth, at the very least Christie was disengaged in a way that a governor cannot be. It would prove what I’ve been saying all along–that this outrageously criminal stunt would have never happened unless Christie fostered an environment in which it is acceptable to intentionally endanger people’s safety for political gain. And that alone should end Christie’s career.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.