Closing arguments began this morning the federal trial in Newark.
NEWARK -- During closing arguments in the federal court case on the lanes closures at the George Washington Bridge, prosecutors described the language in the infamous seven-word email sent by one of the defendants as "clear" and "definite."
"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Cortes said to jurors at the start of the government's closing arguments in the criminal trial against former Gov. Chris Christie associates, Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni.
"Her words mean exactly what they say," Cortes said, in referring to the email Kelly wrote.
Kelly's email to David Wildstein became public in January 2014, when she was still serving as Christie's deputy chief of staff.
"Those words, now frozen in time, were written by Bridget Kelly when she thought no one but David Wildstein would see them," he said. "Those words do not say 'time for a traffic study.'"
In laying out the government's case, Cortes referred to the evidence stacked up against Baroni and Kelly as "staggering" and called their insistence on the stand that they thought Wildstein was engaged in an actual traffic study as "preposterous."
Prosecutors say the two participated in a bizarre plan to close down several local access toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge, causing massive gridlock in Fort Lee over four days in September 2013 as a way to punish the Fort Lee mayor for not endorsing the governor for re-election.
A Bridgegate sketchpad: scenes from the trial
Wildstein, who pleaded guilty to federal crimes last year, testified in the trial as the prosecution's star witness. He admitted the lane closures were designed as a political retribution plot and that Kelly and Baroni were involved the planning.
Cortes contradicted Kelly, who testified she used a poor choice of words in the email. Kelly testified she was told the lane closures were part of a traffic study and and that her email referred to the gridlock that would result from the lane shutdowns.
As for Bill Baroni, Christie's former top appointee to the Port Authority, Cortes argued his motives were straightforward: Baroni, along with Kelly, conspired to use Port Authority resources to punish the mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, for not endorsing Christie's 2013 re-election bid.
"Bill Baroni knew these lane reductions were not part of a legitimate traffic study," Cortes said. "Let's be clear: There was never any intent to do a legitimate traffic study."
Baroni, who appeared in November 2013 before a legislative committee investigating the motive behind the lane closures, insisted the closures were part of a traffic study. Cortes said it was all a "sham."
Cortes' closing argument on Friday was scheduled to span more than three hours. It caps six weeks of testimony in one of the biggest political corruption trials in New Jersey in recent memory.
"They knew there was no traffic study. They knew that the lane reductions were punitive (and they conspired with David Wildstein," Cortes said.
Baroni and Kelly were charged with nine felony counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy, misuse of Port Authority resources and the infringement of peoples' civil rights.
Cortes described the charges levied against pair, then methodically laid out the government's case against the two former public officials for each charge.
Cortes attacked Baroni and Kelly's defense, arguing the pair were "high-ranking government officials" when they acted in "spite" to punish Sokolich.
"If you listened to their testimony, you would have thought they were barely interns in the administration," Cortes said.
"They tried to erase themselves from the narrative ... to minimize their role, their awareness and their importance," he said. "They also tried really hard to distance themselves from David Wildstein, their friend and their co-conspirator," he said.
Cortes urged jurors to listen to Wildstein, who spent a week on the stand.
"Keep in mind that his testimony is backed up by documents: Emails, text messages, phone records," he said. "Also, his testimony is backed up by the testimony of others."
In their opening arguments, the defendants' attorneys blasted prosecutors for making "a deal with the devil." They argued that Wildstein was untrustworthy and simply looking for protection from prosecutors to stay out of jail.
But Cortes insisted Wildstein isn't in the clear and that jurors shouldn't assume that because he cooperated with prosecutors that he will be spared jail time.
"The sentencing judge will determine what his ultimate sentence," Cortes said.
It was the first day of closing arguments, which are expected to concluded Monday afternoon.
Jurors are slated to begin their deliberations on Tuesday.
Closing arguments were delayed a day because of a last-minute discovery that several text messages entered as evidence had an incorrect time stamp. Prosecutors did not account for daylight savings time when they converted the messages. The timing of the emails is significant because Kelly testified as to when she sent the emails which differed from the timestamp on the evidence.
After behind-closed-door discussions, the judge agreed to instruct the jury about the mistake and make corrections of the time on the evidence they will receive.
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.