Kelly returns to the stand Tuesday, this time to be grilled by prosecutors.
NEWARK -- Former Gov. Chris Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly will return to the stand Tuesday for cross examination by prosecutors for her alleged role in the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal.
Kelly spoke at length for the first time in three years when she first took the stand Friday and Monday to give her account of how the Bridgegate scandal unfolded. Her sometimes tearful testimony included claims that members of the governor's inner circle, and Christie himself, were guilty of having "a memory issue" as the scandal spiraled out of control.
Kelly testified she thought the lane closures were part of a legitimate traffic study concocted by David Wildstein, a political operative hired to a $150,000 patronage job at the Port Authority, who told her he wanted to eliminate toll lanes at the bridge earmarked for local Fort Lee traffic. Kelly said Wildstein believed the dedicated lanes were unfair and caused traffic from the main approaches to the bridge to back up because there there were not enough toll lanes at the plaza.
Kelly told jurors she first ran the idea by Christie in August 2013 and he okayed it. She said she again spoke to the governor as traffic chaos increased in Fort Lee and news reports surfaced suggesting the shutdowns were part of a political revenge plot.
Kelly, along with Baroni, who was Wildstein's boss, is charged with nine felony counts related to her role in the scheme Wildstein admitted was an act of political revenge. Wildstein pleaded guilty to his role and served as the key witness for the prosecution.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna briefly peppered Kelly with questions Monday afternoon about her role in the governor's office as director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, or IGA.
Khanna will continue his cross examination Tuesday morning. Here are four things he can be expected to grill Kelly on:
1. Deleted emails
Kelly told jurors she was frightened after she witnessed Christie demand from his senior staff to admit whether they had any knowledge of the lane closures during a December 2013 staff meeting.
"He's having a memory issue too," she declared, describing how she she began deleting incriminating emails pointing to her own knowledge once she realized the governor and senior staff were not acknowledging what they had been told.
Her decision to delete the emails, she said, as the Bridgegate scandal began to grow and she came to see the governor and his inner circle closing ranks. She recalled finding herself slowly coming to the realization that she was likely being made a scapegoat in the affair, she said.
But Kelly, charged with federal crimes for her role in the lane closures, will probably have to answer questions on why she deleted email evidence.
2. "Time for some traffic problems"
It was the email that rocked Trenton and made national headlines. In January 2014, Kelly's now-infamous email to the admitted mastermind of the scheme, David Wildstein, was made public.
When Kelly first took the stand on Friday, she said Wildstein came to her in the summr of 2013 with a plan for a traffic study and that's what she always believed the lane closures were all about.
She said: "If I had said 'time for a traffic study,' we wouldn't have all known each other."
So, instead, she wrote that it was "time for some traffic problems" a month before the gridlock in Fort Lee.
Prosecutors will all but certainly question her on the intent of that email.
3. "Is it wrong that I'm smiling?"
If the emails about traffic problems was a misunderstanding, prosecutors will surely ask her about the text message Kelly sent Wildstein amid the lane closures that appeared to show her gloating about the mess.
"Is it wrong that I'm smiling?" Kelly texted Wildstein on the second day of the traffic jams in Fort Lee.
"They're children of Buono voters," Wildstein responded, referring to Barbara Buono, the former Democratic state senator who challenged Christie in the 2013 gubernatorial race.
Kelly's response to the text was addressed quickly before her attorney, Michael Critchley, moved on to other questions:
"David touted the day before the success, the first day success of the study," she said.
"I wasn't sitting there smiling or gloating. I was happy for David and I should have used different words. But I was happy that the first day of the study was a successful. Then I said, 'I feel badly about the kids.' The unfortunate byproduct of the success of the study seemed to be that these kids were late getting to school and that I did feel badly about that," she said. "So it was almost mixed emotions."
4. Flights to Tel Aviv
Critchley also questioned Kelly on her private discussions with Wildstein about Rabbi Mendy Carlebach, who drew the pair's ire because of his eagerness to show up at public events and demand the governor's attention.
"We cannot cause traffic problems in front of his house, can we?" Kelly texted Wildstein.
"Flights to Tel Aviv all mysteriously delayed," Wildstein responded.
Pressed on those texts on Monday, Kelly dismissed any nefarious intentions and brushed it off as "banter back and forth about Mendy."
"... Did you intent to cause traffic problems in front of his house?" Critchley pressed.
"Absolutely not," Kelly said.
Prosecutors may press further.
Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook. Follow NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter.