David Wildstein. | AP Photo/Mel Evans Federal prosecutor says Christie knew about lane closings

NEWARK, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie was told of the George Washington Bridge lane closures as they were occurring in 2013, a federal prosecutor told jurors on Monday in U.S. District Court.

David Wildstein, who has already pleaded guilty to playing a role in the incident, and Bill Baroni, who is now on trial for his alleged role in the scheme, “bragged” about the traffic gridlock that lane closures were causing when they spoke with the Republican governor at a Sept. 11 memorial in Lower Manhattan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna said.


The two Christie-appointed former Port Authority officials mentioned the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, whom they are accused of trying to punish after he refused to endorse Christie’s reelection campaign, the prosecutor said.

“The evidence will show that Baroni and Wildstein were so committed to their plan that, during the precious moments they had alone with the governor, they bragged about the fact that there were traffic problems in Fort Lee and that Mayor Sokolich was not getting his calls returned,” Khanna told jurors during his opening remarks Monday morning.

Khanna did not elaborate on what was allegedly said during the conversation with Christie, but he told jurors that “evidence in this case may show that others could have, should have, perhaps knew certain aspects of what was going on.”

Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, were indicted in May 2015 on charges of conspiracy, fraud and civil rights violations.

Christie, who is currently a top adviser to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, has denied any knowledge or involvement in the lane-closing incident. And an ostensibly independent report commissioned by Christie said, referring to a much publicized picture of Christie and Wildstein chatting at a public event three days into the manufactured traffic jams at the bridge, that there was “no evidence we have seen that the Governor and Wildstein actually had any substantive discussion of the Fort Lee lane realignment at that public event.”

Wildstein, a sharp-elbowed political operator who was a boyhood schoolmate of Christie, has already implicated the two others and will testify during the trial.

The trial is expected to last six weeks.

The allegation that Christie was told about the George Washington Bridge Fort Lee access lane closings as they were happening doesn’t exactly contradict the governor's own words. But the prosecution's version of the incident does not square with the governor’s own claims, or with the report on Bridgegate produced by the outside firm hired by the Christie administration.

The allegation that the lane closings were mentioned to Christie at a 9/11 commemoration ceremony in Lower Manhattan in 2013 is not new.

But that 2014 report by the law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher — commissioned by Christie and paid for with millions in taxpayer funds — not only denied evidence of a "substantive" discussion, but also said, “It seems incredible that, in a public setting leading up to a 9/11 Memorial event, surrounded by other government officials and scores of constituents seeking photographs and handshakes, anything substantive or inculpatory would have been discussed."

The report went on to say that “even if credited, any passing reference by Wildstein made in a social, public setting at the time of a public 9/11 Memorial event to traffic issue in Fort Lee would not have been meaningful or memorable to the Governor” and that Christie “recalls no such exchange.”

The prosecution's statement that Wildstein and Baroni bragged to the governor about what they had done runs directly counter to any characterization of the verbal update as a "passing reference" and makes it harder to imagine the exchange as one the governor could possibly fail to recall.

Baroni’s attorney, Michael Baldassare, told jurors during his opening statement that Wildstein — the government’s star witness — told prosecutors that other officials played a role in the alleged scheme.

“David Wildstein implicated so many people in this activity that it will boggle your mind,” Baldassare said. “They’re people at the highest levels of government in New Jersey, and at the very top of the Port Authority.”

At one point, Baldassare called Wildstein a “ventriloquist’s doll, sitting on Christopher J. Christie’s lap.”

While Baldassare said his client had no hand in shutting down the lanes or covering up the incident, he spent much of his time with the jury focused on Wildstein, whom he said the governor’s office had sent to keep an eye on Baroni.

Baldassare worked to impeach Wildstein’s reputation, even cursing his name and apologizing before doing so. He repeatedly called Wildstein a liar, saying he lied under oath before the grand jury that handed up the indictment in the case.

“David Wildstein is a vicious guy,” Baldassare said, referring to comments he said former coworkers of Wildstein had made about him. “He’s a bully. I’m sorry judge, everyone — he’s an asshole. He’s a horrible person. He’s the most complicated person I’ve ever met. He is a vindictive individual who would destroy your life.”

“He had a twisted mind,” he added, again referring to others. “He’s maniacal. I apologize, again — David Wildstein is a miserable prick. The governor referred to David Wildstein as his fixer. His fixer. And the governor used to joke that David Wildstein was his Mr. Wolf. Mr. Wolf from the movie ‘Pulp Fiction.’”

The character, played by actor Harvey Keitel in the Quentin Tarantino film, was an underworld fixer who helped two of the movie’s main characters dispose of a body.

At an appearance at a town hall event in Morris County, Christie avoided reporters' questions about the trial.

Linh Tat contributed to this report.

UPDATE: After this story was published, Baldassare emailed to say that some of the derogatory comments he made about Wildstein during the trial were quotes from people Wildstein had once worked with. The story has been modified to reflect that.