Opening arguments will open the high profile federal trial Monday of two former members of Gov. Chris Christie's inner circle, who are charged with deliberately blocking local toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge in 2013 in an alleged act of political retribution. Watch video
NEWARK--The orange traffic cones went up just before 6 a.m.
Three days earlier, David Wildstein--then one of the ranking New Jersey officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey--had ordered the general manager of the George Washington Bridge, with little explanation, to cut the number of toll lanes dedicated to traffic from Fort Lee from three to one.
It was supposedly part of a traffic study.
"I was told not to discuss this with anyone," Robert Durando would later tell a legislative committee trying to get to the bottom of the unannounced lane closures at the world's busiest bridge--causing massive traffic jams in Fort Lee in September 2013, in what many then already suspected was an act of political retaliation.
Nearly three years later, Durando is likely to be among the first Port Authority witnesses called to testify, as trial opens this week in the so-called Bridgegate scandal, charging two former members of Gov. Chris Christie's inner circle with illegally using the Hudson River span to play a game of political hardball.
Robert Durando, General Manager of the George Washington Bridge for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, testifying before the legislature. (Tony Kurdzuk | Star-Ledger file photo)In a scheme audacious even in a state known for corruption, federal prosecutors say the pair conspired to bring local streets to a virtual stand-still by deliberately blocking several Fort Lee toll lanes for the sole purpose of punishing Mayor Mark Sokolich over his refusal to endorse Christie for re-election.
The trial, which opens in federal court in Newark on Monday, ostensibly is focused on William Baroni, who served as deputy executive director of the Port Authority, and Bridget Anne Kelly, who was the governor's deputy chief of staff. Wildstein has already pleaded guilty and is expected to be a star prosecution witness.
But with a cast of characters that includes a string of higher-ups going all the way to the governor's office, in a narrative that played out against the backdrop of Christie's failed presidential race, it is as much political theater as courtroom drama. While not charged or accused of any wrongdoing, Christie remains at its center of the story, even now, long after his hopes for the presidency crashed and burned in New Hampshire.
Jury picked in Bridgegate trial
"I think the people of New Jersey have already convicted Christie of Bridgegate--that this is politics as usual in New Jersey and he is guilty," remarked Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University. "New Jersey has a culture of retaliation and backstabbing and hardball politics. But I think this went over the line. Even for New Jersey."
Indeed, the governor himself--who has repeatedly said he had nothing to do with the toll lane scheme--has acknowledged that the scandal continues to have its impact, telling MSNBC on Wednesday it likely contributed to Donald Trump's decision not to select him to be his running mate.
"I'm sure it was a factor," Christie said.
Leveraging endorsements
Much of the case is well known by now. In the summer of 2013, it was no secret that the governor's re-election campaign was seeking to run up the score. The strategy was to garner endorsements from local Democratic officials, burnishing Christie's national image by showcasing his wide bipartisan support.
Prosecutors say members of the administration's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs--which facilitated the relationships between the governor's office and state and local officials, began playing a role in seeking those endorsements. And according to the U.S. Attorney's office, it was Wildstein--a former Republican mayor of Livingston and one-time anonymous political blogger who went to high school with Christie--who came up with the plan to wield the George Washington Bridge like a blunt object against Sokolich.
David Wildstein, the former Port Authority official who has admitted orchestrating the lane shutdowns at George Washington Bridge, seen here in 2013 when he refused to testify before a legislative committree investigating the scandal. (Patti Sapone | Star-Ledger file photo) Wildstein, a Port Authority patronage appointee hired by Baroni to a sweetheart $150,020-a-year position that had no job description, had dished out gossip and acerbic political tidbits as the secret voice behind PolitickerNJ. While few at the Port Authority apparenlty knew exactly what he was supposed to be doing, it seemed many were fearful of what he might do if crossed. Durando, during the legislative hearings, was asked if the shadowy figure he barely knew had the power to fire him.
"I suspect he does," the bridge manager said flatly.
In court filings, federal prosecutors said Kelly, who was playing a role in seeking the endorsements of local officials as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, expressed disappointment to Wildstein in the summer of 2013 that Sokolich was not likely to support the governor.
According to the U.S. Attorney's office, Wildstein told her they could use the local toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge to cause traffic problems in Fort Lee "whenever it would be advantageous to do so..."
Dispensing public funds
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey--the powerful bi-state agency that controls the region's major bridges, tunnels, airports and ports--was no stranger to patronage and special deals that meant something to people in power on both sides of the river. And by then, the agency and its $7.9 billion budget was already being used politically as leverage in New Jersey, records indicate.
In April 2012, for example, the Port Authority approved a long-stalled, $256 million project to build a new PATH station in Harrison. Nine months later, the Democratic mayor of Harrison, who said Baroni had called him and helped jump-start the project, endorsed the governor. The agency also gave Union City $2.9 million for roadway improvements for upgrades to approach roadways to the Lincoln Tunnel. It was the first time the city received such aid, officials said. After Christie lobbied for the assistance, Union City Mayor Brian Stack, who is also a Democratic state senator, threw his support to the governor as well.
Prosecutors say Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop came into the mix as well. Fulop, who in 2012 was still a councilman, was working on behalf of Foreign Auto Preparation Service (FAPS), a processor of imported vehicles at Port Newark. Court filings show Fulop helped reach an agreement between FAPS and the Port Authority on rent and fees that were due. After the deal was struck, Wildstein and Bill Stepien, a top Christie aide who became his campaign manager, exchanged emails that clearly suggested they considered using the agreement as a bargaining chip for an endorsement of the governor.
"Good meeting with Fulop today, very open about his intent to endorse--although clearly that's what I wanted to hear from him," Wildstein wrote in a Nov. 28, 2012, email to Stepien.
"Good to hear," Stepien responded, according copies of the email contained in the court documents. "I give him less of a chance than most of our other targets . . . quite the snake. We'll see . . . you can't say we haven't tried!"
A year later, days before the lanes at the George Washington Bridge were shut, the two again were still talking about Fulop and whether the mayor might yet be "convinced" to get on board with the governor.
"He's feeling the heat. Continue to shut him out til further notice," Stepien told Wildstein.
"I have a FAPS meeting this week," the Port Authority executive replied. "Suspect they will leave unhappy."
Fulop later revealed that meetings with Baroni and other administration officials were cancelled, after the Democratic mayor refused to endorse the governor. The mayor, who is expected to run for governor, has declined comment on the email exchange.
"We have tried not to comment really in detail, since what the mayor previously provided to the U.S. Attorney with regard to cancelled meetings and their treatment of FAPs obviously has an impact on the case," said Jennifer Morrill, a spokeswoman for the mayor, who confirmed he has been subpoenaed as a prosecution witness.
'Time for some traffic problems...'
The plan to shut the lanes at the George Washington Bridge, say prosecutors, was put in play after Kelly spoke to Matt Mowers, then a campaign staffer, and got the final word: Sokolich was not going to endorse. According to the indictment, she reached out the next day to Wildstein on Aug. 13, 2013, with a message that to many represents the clearest evidence the lane diversions at the bridge were an act of political retribution.
"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," she wrote.
"Got it," he replied.
A month later, on a day the feds say was chosen because it was the first day of school, Durando as ordered cut the local toll lanes earmarked for vehicles coming out of a Fort Lee access ramp from three to one. Traffic in the borough quickly backed up, leaving commuters fuming, blocking emergency vehicles and sparking a series of increasingly frantic phone calls from the mayor to Baroni, who never responded to them.
The lanes remained closed for four days until Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority and an appointee of the New York governor, finally learned what was happening from a reporter's inquiry and ordered the lanes be immediately reopened.
A state legislative inquiry was soon launched over growing suspicions that the scheme had been politically motivated to cause havoc in Fort Lee, quickly sparking a separate federal probe.
Prosecutors, following a 16-month investigation, ultimately charged Baroni and Kelly with conspiracy and fraud. Wildstein pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government.
Was it a federal crime?
The heart of the legal case relies on a statue--Section 666 of Title 18 of the United States Code--intended to punish fraud, bribery, theft and embezzlement from agencies that receive federal funds.
"That's what gives us the federal hook," Fishman explained. "That's what makes it a federal crime."
He said shutting down traffic lanes as retribution against the Fort Lee mayor was a misuse of those federal funds.
It is a creative use of an already broadly written statute, said Daniel Wenner, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York. "Ususally when one thinks of the 666 charge, one thinks of a entity getting federal funds and someone embezzling it or misusing the funds," said Wenner, now an attorney specializing in white-collar defense work with Day Pitney. "The challenge for the government is going to be to convince the jury the facts fit the charge."
Defense attorneys have already seized on that point, arguing in filings that the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge may have caused "improperly created traffic," but did not violate anyone's constitutional rights.
Attorney Michael Critchley, who represents Kelly, said the inconvenience to motorists caused by cutting off Fort Lee's access to some traffic lanes at the bridge simply did not amount to a federal crime.
"All we're talking about here is inconvenience and traffic," Critchley said during a pre-trial hearing.
"No matter why it's caused?" asked U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton, who will preside over the trial.
"No matter why it's caused," Critchley asserted.
Prosecutors have rejected those arguments, as well as defense claims that the government was "criminalizing normal politics." In court filings, they said that Baroni and Kelly, by co-opting the Port Authority's resources to execute a purely personal agenda at odds with the agency's public mission, it was not a case of "politics as usual."
Wenner said while Bridgegate might be representative of normal Jersey politics, a jury might see it otherwise.
"That's where the prosecutors will have the upper hand," he suggested. "The government has an opportunity to frame it."
In the end, the jury may be left with a narrative that "a terrible thing happened for such a petty reason," he said. "And that somebody has to pay for it."
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.