James Keivom/New York Daily News
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has blamed the George Washington Bridge traffic on 'stupid' staff members, but former Port Authority official David Wildstein says Christie knew of the September lane closures.
No one could possibly have known at the time, when everything came to a stop on the George Washington Bridge because of a political grudge and a lie about a phony traffic study. But maybe Chris Christie's ride to the Republican nomination for President might have gotten stopped on that bridge along with everybody else last September.
By now, you know Christie has blamed that traffic on everybody except Hillary Clinton. He said he was betrayed by members of his staff, said he was the one lied to, called staff members "stupid," fired a couple of them.
And when he met with the media for nearly two hours one day, in a self-absorbed and rather self-pitying performance for a rough, tough guy, he wanted the whole world to believe that he was as much a victim as the people who sat on that bridge for hours because one of his staffers — Bridget Anne Kelly — had sent an email to David Wildstein of the Port Authority about how it was time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.
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The morning she sent the email, she got one back from Wildstein, a high school friend of Christie's, about as fast as high school kids respond to text messages.
Mark Bonifacio/New York Daily News
Through his lawyer, David Wildstein said that Christie was aware of the lane closures, something the governor has denied.
"Got it," was Wildstein's response.
When Christie talked about all that at a press conference almost as long as "American Hustle," this was one of the things he said:
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"I had no knowledge of this — of the planning, the execution or anything about it — and that I first found out about it after it was over. And even then, what I was told was that it was a traffic study."
Wildstein, who took the Fifth when called before the legislative panel investigating what is now known far and wide as Bridgegate, says differently now through his lawyer. Here is the money paragraph in the middle of the letter sent by Alan Zegas to the general counsel of the Port Authority, where Wildstein worked before he quit in the immediate aftermath of Bridgegate:
Tim Larsen/AP
Bridget Anne Kelly (right), who was essentially fired on television, has yet to give her account of events.
"It has also come to light that a person within the Christie administration communicated the Christie administration's order that certain lanes on the George Washington Bridge were to be closed, and evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to knowledge of the lane closures during the period when the lanes were closed contrary to what the governor stated."
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This doesn't mean that Bridget Anne Kelly, called "stupid" by Chris Christie and essentially fired on television, will tell a similar story when she is called to testify about all this under oath. But if either she or Wildstein does have proof that Christie lied when he said he didn't know, Christie isn't just through as a presidential candidate, his political career is over.
Clearly, David Wildstein is trying to save himself here, his own reputation. There are a lot of people who will face subpoenas in this case and you may eventually need a program like the one that people will buy at the Super Bowl to keep track of all of them. But before Wildstein has to tell his own version of things under oath, this letter comes out.
We will eventually see what kind of evidence Wildstein has, how good it is. We will eventually hear from Bridget Anne Kelly. And Bill Baroni, a young guy who was Christie's chief of staff and was going places, maybe all the way to Washington with Chris Christie.
And you know what happens then? We find out once and for all who was stupid about traffic on the George Washington Bridge.
Put the internet to work for you.
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