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U.S. Indictment Details Plotting in New Jersey Bridge Scandal
By KATE ZERNIKE MAY 1, 2015
nytimes.com
Bill Baroni, Bridget Anne Kelly and David Wildstein waited for the first day of school.
They held off on telling people so their secret would not get out.
They steered cars to a cash lane, to make drivers sweat even more.
For 16 months, only the basic contours of the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal have been known: an email called for “some traffic problems in Fort Lee”; a month later, gridlock and an angry mayor.
But an indictment released by federal prosecutors in New Jersey on Friday fills out in more detail the specifics of how and why, presenting the lengths three accused conspirators, aides and an ally of Gov. Chris Christie, went to, and the delight they took, in concocting their scheme and the sham story to cover it up. Two of the three, Mr. Baroni and Ms. Kelly, were indicted, while the third, Mr. Wildstein, pleaded guilty.
The fine-grained intricacies laid out in the legal papers show the three plotting like petulant and juvenile pranksters, using government resources, time and personnel to punish a public official whose sole offense was failing to endorse their political patron. The three were in constant contact, brazenly using government emails, their tone sometimes almost giddy. They even gave the increasingly desperate mayor of Fort Lee their own version of the silent treatment.
A Timeline for the George Washington Bridge Scandal Events in the scandal now swirling around Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey regarding the motives behind the shutdown of some traffic lanes to the George Washington Bridge.
OPEN Timeline
The charges reveal the step-by-step, carefully coordinated attention paid by the three associates of the governor to create the perfect traffic jam, a veritable town-size parking lot, one that in the end may have stymied Mr. Christie’s presidential ambitions.
Mr. Baroni and Ms. Kelly have proclaimed their innocence, saying that Mr. Wildstein, who is cooperating with the authorities, fabricated stories about their actions to help his case.
The hinge of the plot Mr. Wildstein has outlined for the authorities was a uniquely New Jersey form of punishment: making suburban drivers sit in traffic.
The first mention of it came in March 2011, as Mr. Christie’s star among national Republicans was first rising.
Mr. Wildstein, then the chief of staff to Mr. Baroni, Mr. Christie’s top staff appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, mentioned to Mr. Baroni that they could use the local access lanes to the bridge from Fort Lee as leverage against the town’s mayor, Mark Sokolich.
Mr. Christie’s strategists were hoping to use his 2013 re-election campaign to build a case for him to run for president. Their goal was to secure endorsements from a broad spectrum of officials, including Democrats such as Mayor Sokolich.
This cultivating fell mostly to young staff members in the wing of Mr. Christie’s front office known as Intergovernmental Affairs. In August 2013, Ms. Kelly, the deputy chief of staff in that office, expressed disappointment to Mr. Wildstein that Mr. Sokolich, who had been the subject of intense wooing by her office and the authority, was not going to endorse Mr. Christie.
Ms. Kelly, like Mr. Baroni and Mr. Wildstein, was a loyal lieutenant, who joined the governor and members of his inner circle at events outside of work.
Mr. Wildstein mentioned the lanes as a source of leverage. Ms. Kelly called a young employee and instructed him to confirm that Mr. Sokolich had refrained from an endorsement, then emailed Mr. Wildstein: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”
That was mid-August. In the coming days, she confirmed again that Mr. Sokolich would not endorse.
And she instructed her employees not to “interact” with him.
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Bill Baroni was appointed by Mr. Christie to the Port Authority. Credit Chris Pedota/The Record, via Associated Press A week later Mr. Wildstein and Ms. Kelly joked in their text messages about punishing a rabbi who had also fallen into disfavor. “We cannot cause traffic problems in front of his house, can we?” Ms. Kelly wrote.
“Flights to Tel Aviv all mysteriously delayed,” Mr. Wildstein countered.
“Perfect,” she replied.
The three then made up a cover story: They would say that they were doing a traffic study so that unwitting Port Authority staff members would go along with the plan, making it appear to be legitimate. That would require some planning and the involvement of unwitting participants.
Mr. Wildstein had a traffic engineer prepare several configurations; Mr. Baroni and Ms. Kelly agreed that the one that funneled three access lanes into a single one would inflict the worst punishment on the mayor, by creating the most severe traffic backup on the streets of Fort Lee. They would steer that lane to a tollbooth that accepted cash as well as E-ZPass; there would be no access to the E-ZPass-only lane that offered a faster commute.
They were ready in August, but Mr. Baroni recommended waiting. After all, traffic tended to be lighter in summer; “the punitive impact would be lessened,” the indictment says. They bided their time. They agreed: They would do it the first day of school, Monday, Sept. 9, 2013, in order to “intensify Mayor Sokolich’s punishment.”
They agreed not to tell him, or any officials in Fort Lee, so that there would be no time to prepare. It would also, the indictment says, “keep Fort Lee residents and G.W.B. commuters from altering their routes.”
And though the three had agreed on the date, they also agreed not to share it with any Port Authority workers involved in the closings until the Friday before, to avoid any leaks.
</Snip> Read the rest of this DAMNING expose here: nytimes.com |
