Bob Jordan

@BobJordanAPP

Gov. Chris Christie lied to reporters about details of the George Washington Bridge scandal, a then-Christie aide wrote in a newly revealed bombshell text message written shortly after the 2013 lane-closure scheme came to light, according to new court papers filed Wednesday.

Christina Genovese Renna — in a text not previously disclosed — said Christie “flat out lied” to reporters about senior staff members not being involved in the Bridgegate scandal, according to the court documents. The text purportedly was sent to another Christie staffer after the Republican governor said he had been assured members of his administration and campaign had no knowledge of the scandal.

Renna was a top aide to Bridget Anne Kelly, who was Christie’s deputy chief of staff and wrote the “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” email.

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“Are you listening? He just flat out lied about senior staff and (former Deputy Chief of Staff Bill) Stepien not being involved,” Renna texted during Christie’s Dec. 13, 2013, news conference.

The new documents from defense attorneys were filed ahead of the Sept. 12 trial of Kelly and another former Christie associate, former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive William Baroni, both of whom are accused of having central roles in the politically motivated lane closures. U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton will preside in Newark.

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They are also accused of defrauding the Port Authority of property rights, depriving people in Fort Lee of their civil rights to travel without unreasonable government restriction, wire fraud and conspiracy.

The papers were filed by Baroni attorney Michael Baldassare.

Christie has long maintained that he had no involvement in the scandal and that he has been truthful in his public statements.

Speaking to reporters in New York after appearing on a sports talk radio show Wednesday morning, Christie denied the claim that he lied.

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“I absolutely dispute it. It’s ridiculous. It’s nothing new,” Christie said. “There’s nothing new to talk about.”

Christie spokesman Brian Murray added in a statement: “The governor’s statements have been clear. Nothing contained in this text message changes that in any way. He stands by those statements completely and unequivocally.”

The Renna messages were allegedly sent as Christie addressed reporters in the Dec. 13 news conference.

Baroni’s lawyer called the exchange “a key document’’ that Renna and the Christie administration have withheld.

According to the filing, Christie had this exchange during the news conference:

Reporter: “Governor, can you say with certainty that someone else didn’t on your staff or in your administration act on your behalf for the lane closures for political retribution?’’

Christie: “Yeah, I have absolutely no reason to believe that ... and I’ve made it very clear to everybody on my senior staff that if anyone had any knowledge about this that they needed to come forward to me and tell me about it, and they’ve all assured me that they don’t.’’

Follow-up: “Your campaign chief?’’

Christie: “Oh yeah. I’ve spoken to Mr. (Bill) Stepien, who’s the person in charge of the campaign, and he has assured me the same thing.’’

“Contemporaneously, Ms. Renna had the following text exchange with (Christie staffer Pete Sheridan),’’ the filing says.

Renna: “Are you listening? He just flat out lied about senior staff and Stepien not being involved.”

Sheridan: “I’m listening.”

Sheridan: “Gov is doing fine. Holding his own up there.”

Renna: “Yes. But he lied. And if emails are found with the subpoena or (campaign) emails are uncovered in discovery ... if it comes to that ... it could be bad.”

In two separate investigations and in the U.S. attorney’s continuing inquiry, Christie has not been linked to the traffic scheme that prosecutors say resulted from the Fort Lee mayor’s failure to endorse him for re-election in 2013.

Stepien, who led the now-defunct Intergovernmental Affairs unit before Kelly, was fired by Christie on Jan. 9, after it was revealed Stepien did have knowledge of — but not involvement in — the lane closures. Stepien has not been charged in the case.

As attention to the September 2013 traffic jam heightened, Christie told reporters during the Dec. 13, 2013, news conference that he himself had probed his administration to determine its involvement.

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That’s when Renna texted Pete Sheridan, who had worked on Christie’s re-election campaign, saying Christie was lying.

Renna, through her attorney, had nothing to add, at least not yet.

“Ms. Renna will answer questions publicly when she testifies at the upcoming trial, not before,” said the attorney, Henry Klingeman.

In the filing, Baroni’s attorneys seek to throw out evidence they say amounts to a “potpourri of information cobbled together from an investigation that, in the end, could not locate a viable federal prosecution,” such as photographs of Baroni and others at a Sept. 11 memorial service during the access lane shutdown on the Fort Lee side of the bridge.

The prosecution team, meanwhile, “continues to ignore” evidence that clears Baroni of wrongdoing, such as the texts between Renna and Sheridan, Baldassare wrote.

Renna deleted the text messages after the Legislature had issued subpoenas in its investigation of the closures and did not mention them in her testimony to the joint investigative panel, the defense attorney said.

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Contributing: Dustin Racioppi.

Bob Jordan: bjordan@gannettnj.com