EXCERPTS
Excerpts from emails and text exchanges about a move to close lanes of the George Washington Bridge in September that caused traffic jams in Fort Lee, N.J.:
Aug. 13: Bridget Anne Kelly, aide to Gov. Chris Christie, to David Wildstein, Port Authority director of interstate capital projects: "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."
— Wildstein: “Got it.”
Sept. 10: Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich text to Port Authority deputy executive director Bill Baroni: "Presently we have four very busy traffic lanes merging into only one toll booth. The bigger problem is getting kids to school. Help please. It's maddening."
Exchange among unknown Christie aides and appointees:
— “Is it wrong that I am smiling?”
— “No.”
— “I feel badly about the kids.”
— “I guess.”
Sept. 17: Sokolich to Baroni: "We should talk. Someone needs to tell me that the recent traffic debacle was not punitive in nature. The last four reporters that contacted me suggest that the people they are speaking with absolutely believe it to be punishment. Try as I may to dispel these rumors I am having a tough time."
Associated Press
Newly released emails and text messages suggest that one of Gov. Chris Christie’s top aides engineered traffic jams in a New Jersey town last September to punish its Democratic mayor.
An “outraged and deeply saddened” Christie responded Wednesday by saying he was misled by his aide, and he denied involvement in the apparent act of political payback.
The messages were obtained by news organizations amid a statehouse investigation into whether the lane closings that led to the tie-ups were retribution against the mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie for re-election last fall.
“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly wrote in August in a message to David Wildstein, a top Christie appointee on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
“Got it,” Wildstein replied. A few weeks later, Wildstein closed two of three lanes connecting Fort Lee to the heavily traveled George Washington Bridge, which runs between New Jersey and New York City.
The messages do not directly implicate Christie in the shutdown. But they appear to contradict his assertions that the closings were not punitive and that his staff was not involved.
In a statement issued late Wednesday, Christie said: “I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge.”
“People will be held responsible for their actions,” he added, but gave no details.
Kelly had no immediate comment.
Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich called it “appalling” that the traffic jams appear to have been deliberately created.
“When it’s man-made and when it was done with venom and when it was done intentionally, it is, in my mind, the prime example of political pettiness,” he said. He said the gridlock put people in danger by holding up emergency vehicles, and he added that those responsible should resign.
While Sokolich is a Democrat, Christie sought bipartisan support during his re-election campaign to bolster his image as a pragmatic leader willing to work with his political opponents.
Democratic state Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who has been leading the investigation, said the material in the documents is “shocking” and “outrageous” and calls into question the honesty of the governor and his staff.
The tie-ups occurred between Sept. 9 and Sept. 13. Port Authority officials later said the closings were part of a traffic study. But no study has been produced.
As the controversy heated up over the past few weeks, Wildstein resigned, as did Port Authority deputy executive director Bill Baroni, another Christie appointee. Wildstein, a childhood friend of the governor, is scheduled to testify today before a state Assembly committee but is fighting the subpoena.
Most of the emails were sent using private accounts rather than government ones, which would be subject to open records laws and therefore public.
The Democratic National Committee seized on the disclosures, releasing a web video that details Christie’s prior assurances that neither he nor his staff had anything to do with the lane closings.
“I’ve made it to very clear to everybody on my senior staff that if anyone had any knowledge about this that they needed to come forward to me and tell me about it, and they’ve all assured me that they don’t,” Christie said in mid-December.
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