Chris-Christie-Mark-Sokolich.jpg

Gov. Chris Christie greets several mayors, including Mark Sokolich, left, during an event at the National Guard Armory in Teaneck in December 2011. The photo was posted on the governor's website.

(Tim Larsen/Office of the governor)

During a nationally televised press conference last month, Gov. Chris Christie sought to highlight the absurdity of the claim he sanctioned last year's lane closures on the George Washington Bridge to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for declining to endorse him.

"Until I saw his picture last night on television, I wouldn’t have been able to pick him out of a lineup," Christie said.

The governor added that Sokolich "was not on my radar screen," that he didn’t know what Sokolich looked like and that he had never heard the mayor’s name "until all this stuff happened."

Those statements were undermined today by the revelation that Sokolich and at least two other mayors dined with Christie at a luncheon at Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion in Princeton, in 2010.

In an interview with The Star-Ledger, Sokolich said he, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer and one or two other mayors talked about ways to reduce the tax burden on New Jerseyans over a meal of beef tenderloin.

"He was promoting his toolkit for tax relief," Sokolich said. "It was a small number of people. Just me and him, the mayor of Hoboken, another mayor or two and (spokesman) Michael Drewniak."

The mayor said he later attended two holiday parties at the mansion and saw Christie at a small number of other events.

A spokesman for Christie tonight confirmed the 2010 lunch took place but downplayed its significance, saying the governor regularly hosts such meetings. The spokesman, Kevin Roberts, said Drewniak was not present at the gathering.

"The hosting of local elected officials at all levels and from both parties has been a regular occurrence at Drumthwacket," Roberts said in an email. "I’ll otherwise refer you to the governor’s own extensive comments on this in which he makes it clear that he didn’t recall Mayor Sokolich and the endorsement wasn’t on his radar."

Christie, whose second term has been dominated by the scandal, maintains he had no advance knowledge of the decision to close two local access lanes to the bridge in September, causing four days of gridlock in Fort Lee.

In this Sept. 12, 2013, photo, then-Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly, right, stands with Gov. Chris Christie, left, during a tour of the Seaside Heights boardwalk after it was hit by a massive fire.

Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, and two of his one-time allies at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — Bill Baroni and David Wildstein — have been implicated in the closures. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Port Authority inspector general and a joint legislative committee all have launched investigations.

Despite Christie’s insistence during the Jan. 9 press conference that he didn’t know Sokolich, the mayor said today he continues to believe the governor played no role in the closures.

"I take the governor at his word," he said.

But Sokolich, a Democrat, has changed his opinion about the motivation for the lane restrictions, saying he now firmly believes they were retribution for his failure to endorse the Republican governor during the run-up to November’s election. Sokolich has previously said he didn’t think the closure was tied to an endorsement.

He said he changed his thinking after last month’s release of emails showing Kelly, the former deputy chief of staff, set the closure in motion with an email that said, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

In other emails, Wildstein referred to Sokolich as the "little Serbian." The mayor is of Croatian descent.

Former Port Authority official David Wildstein is seen here at a Jan. 9 hearing in Trenton. Wildstein, who ordered the closure of lanes approaching the George Washington Bridge, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination at the hearing.

"Once I read the emails, I felt it was retribution," he said. "When you read, ‘Time for some traffic in Fort Lee,’ I am Fort Lee," Sokolich said. "When you see, ‘that little Serb,’ that’s me. I don’t think any reasonable person could reach another conclusion."

The mayor said he was never directly asked for his endorsement. Instead, he said, Christie aide Matt Mowers, now the executive director of the Republican Party in New Hampshire, danced around the issue whenever the two met. Mowers, who could not immediately be reached for comment, is one of 18 people subpoenaed by the joint legislative committee.

"It was always a roundabout review of everyone jumping ship — Democrats jumping to their side of the fence — and he would say, ‘How do you feel about that?" Sokolich said. "I don’t think they wanted it to be a direct request, because then they would have plausible deniability that they asked for my endorsement and didn’t get it."

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