In a day of fierce and often combative testimony, star Bridgegate witness David Wildstein was challenged on his political involvement in the Christie campaign, and the lies and dirty tricks the Republican operative once bragged about.
NEWARK -- He told the governor he wanted to be the ambassador to Anguilla.
David Wildstein claimed he was just joking with Gov. Chris Christie, in the heady days when there were high expectations the governor's presidential bid was going to put him in the White House.
But defense attorneys in the Bridgegate trial seized upon the moment as yet another example of the political calculus at play every day when Wildstein was at work--playing an influential background role in the Christie campaign, while being paid $150,000-a-year in a patronage job created for him at the Port Authority.
Wildstein is the government's star witness in the trial of Bill Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority, and Bridget Anne Kelly, a one-time aide to the governor, who are charged in a plot orchestrated by Wildstein in September 2013 shutting down several local toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge to deliberately back up traffic into Fort Lee. Prosecutors have called the scheme one of political retribution, aimed at punishing the borough's Democratic mayor after he declined to endorse the Republican governor for re-election.
A former political blogger who went to high school with Christie, Wlldstein has already admitted his guilt with a plea deal he hopes will keep him out of jail.
Through a week of testimony, Wildstein has insisted that he took his direction in the scandal from Kelly, Baroni and others in the governor's office. But in a day of fierce and often combative cross-examination, defense attorney Michael Critchley, who represents Kelly, painted a picture of a long-time liar and manipulator--who would do whatever was politically expedient to advance his cause.
Critchley has suggested that Wildstein and other higher-ups in the Christie campaign were the real driving force behind the Bridgegate scandal. He read through Wildstein's appointment calendar, pointing to entries of meetings with Bill Stepien, a Christie strategist and former campaign manager, Michelle Brown, the governor's appointments counsel, press spokesman Michael Drewniak, former chief of staff Richard Bagger, and the governor himself, as examples of his ties to the governor's inner circle.
"My calendar is not a definitive record of people I met with or talked with," responded Wildstein, suggesting some entries might indicate meetings that never happened. However, he agreed that there were frequent emails with Stepien, with whom he traded political advice.
"You were working at the Port Authority and you were giving Gov. Christie's campaign manager advice on how to run the campaign?" asked Critchley.
"Yes," acknowledged Wildstein.
"You, as a political junkie, were interested not only in gubernatorial re-election, but on his presidential campaign," the defense attorney pushed.
"I wanted to be involved," Wildstein replied.
The email traffic could demonstrate for jurors that Kelly wasn't really his boss from the governor's office--which prosecutors have described as the chain of command.
Critchley pointed to a plan Wildstein proposed in a 2012 email to Stepien to have Christie send hundreds of flags flown by the Port Authority over the ashes of Ground Zero to VFW halls through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina--the early-voting primary states that help decide presidential primaries.
In Critchley's questioning, Wildstein conceded he didn't just loosely discuss a presidential campaign with Stepien--even before Christie won a second term as governor. He also acted as a day-to-day political operative, dishing Stepien advice, political research and leads.
At one point, Wildstein forward him an email from a New Hampshire political reporter that suggested Christie should endorse a gubernatorial candidate in the state to begin making connections. Years later, Christie would make frequent trips to New Hampshire to support underdog GOP gubernatorial hopeful Walt Havenstein as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. At the time, Christie dismissed reporters when they tried to suggest his early endorsement of Havenstein was tied to presidential politics.
When pressed about the "significant role" he played in the campaign, Wildstein demurred, but was then shown a photograph taken at the groundbreaking of a new PATH station in Harrison, where the governor has his arm around him."You're looking at him, sorta with admiration," observed Critchley.
"I recall being teased about this picture," Wildstein allowed. "People said it looked like we were looking at each other in an adoring manner."
Gov. Chris Christie with his arm around David Wildstein, at the groundbreaking of a new PATH station in Harrison. To the left is Bill Baroni, now on trial. To the right is former Port Authority chairman David Samson (Defense exhibit from Bridgegate trial) Wildstein testified he helped secure endorsements for Christie's 2013 re-election bid from various Port Authority police unions, but Critchley said had overstated his role.
The defense attorney painted a picture of someone who routinely engaged in deceit most of his life, including the lies told to Port Authority senior managers when Wildstein was first planning the unauthorized lane shutdowns designed to send massive traffic backups into Fort Lee.
In Wildstein's direct testimony, he admitted telling Robert Durando, the general manager of the George Washington Bridge, that the lane closures were part of a traffic study.
"It was not a true statement," Wildstein acknowledged
"It was a lie," insisted Critchley.
The attorney also revisited earlier testimony by Wildstein, who had acknowledged playing a series of political dirty tricks as a young Republican operative--including his taking of the jacket of Sen. Frank Lautenberg prior to a debate so that the Democrat would "feel uncomfortable," and later bragging about that as well as false tales of voter suppression schemes he once claimed to burnish his reputation as a "bad guy."
"You know what a euphemism is?" Critchley asked. "You explained it by saying you were an exuberant volunteer. That's a euphemism. You were a thief."
"I'm not willing to accept that representation," Wildstein replied.
"The coat did not belong to you."
"I made a bad decision," said Wildstein.
"It was in your interest, the attorney said. "Did you brag? Were you proud of yourself?" Critchley asked.
"At the time I was proud of myself," Wildstein said. "I'm embarrassed by it now."
The trial continues on Tuesday in federal court in Newark before U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton.
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