Bridgegate: The key players

Christina Genovese Renna, former Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Christie administration, testifies at the Statehouse before the New Jersey Legislative Select Committee on Investigation looking into the George Washington Bridge scandal. (Tony Kurdzuk | The Star-Ledger)

NEWARK -- A former aide to Gov. Chris Christie said in a text message that the governor "flat out lied" about senior staff members not being involved in the Bridgegate scandal, according to court filings released early Wednesday.

Christina Genovese Renna, the former director of Christie's Intergovernmental Affairs office, texted a Christie campaign staffer during the governor's Dec. 13, 2013, press conference about the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge. Christie said senior staffers, including campaign manager Bill Stepien, "assured" him they were not involved in closures.

"He just flat out lied about senior staff and Stepien not being involved," Renna, 35, said in the text, according to the filing. "If emails are found with the subpoena ... in discovery, if it comes to that it could be bad."

The exchange between Renna and Peter Sheridan, a campaign staffer, was revealed in a court filing by ex-Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni.

Speaking outside a New York City radio station Wednesday, Christie said the allegation that he lied was not true.

"I absolutely dispute it. It's ridiculous. It's nothing new," Christie said after appearing on a sports-talk radio show. "There's nothing new to talk about."

Brian Murray, a spokesman for the governor's office, said Renna's text messages do not contradict what Christie has said previously.

"The governor's statements have been clear," Murray said. "Nothing contained in this text message changes that in any way. He stands by those statements completely and unequivocally."

Renna's attorney, Henry Klingeman, said she would not comment immediately about the texts.

"Ms. Renna will answer questions publicly when she testifies at the upcoming trial, not before," Klingeman said.

A lawyer for Stepien, Kevin Marino, said the allegations against Stepien are false.

"Ms. Renna testified before a legislative committee for more than four hours and did not implicate Mr. Stepien," Marino said in an email. "The suggestion that Mr. Stepien was nonetheless involved in a conspiracy to close access lanes to the George Washington Bridge based on a text message exchange that has been in the government's possession for literally years is categorically false and irresponsible."

Sheridan, the campaign staffer who received the text from Renna, did not return a message seeking comment.

The filing also said Renna deleted the text messages after the state Legislature began issuing subpoenas in the matter.

She did not testify about the exchange when she appeared before a special legislative committee in the spring of 2014. At the time, Renna testified ex-Christie Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly ordered her to delete messages revealing Kelly's alleged satisfaction at Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich's exasperation with the bridge lane closures.

Baroni's brief also notes that the evidence "indicates" that Renna deleted texts from Sheridan -- and no one else -- for a period between Oct. 26-Dec. 19, 2013.

"Thus," it says, "there are 54 days of texts missing from Ms. Renna's response to the legislature's and the federal grand jury subpoenas."

Access lanes from Fort Lee to the bridge were closed in September 2013, causing massive traffic tie-ups in the area. Prosecutors say Baroni, Kelly and ex-Port Authority official and Christie ally David Wildstein planned to have the lanes closed to punish Sokolich for failing to endorse Christie's re-election.

Baroni later told a state investigative committee that the lane closures were part of a traffic study. He said afterwards that he was duped.

Wildstein pleaded guilty in the case and is expected to testify against Baroni and Kelly.

Christie has long denied knowing about the scheme to close the lanes to the bridge. A report commissioned by his office cleared him of any involvement in the matter.

During the December 2013 Bridgegate press conference, Christie said his re-election campaign manager, Stepien, had assured him no one in his senior staff had acted on the governor's behalf to close the bridge access lanes for political retribution.

According to court filings, Renna sent a text message to Sheridan as Christie was speaking at the press conference: "Are you listening? He just flat out lied about senior staff and Stepien not being involved."

Sheridan responded that he was, in fact, listening to the governor's answer, and reassured that her, "Gov. is doing fine. Holding his own up there."

Renna then answered, "Yes. But he lied. And if emails are found with the subpoena or CCFG (Chris Christie for Governor) emails are uncovered in discovery if it comes to that, it could be bad."

In June, Renna became the first employee of the Office of the Governor under Christie's administration to be fined by the State Ethics Commission for sharing emails that contained information "not generally available to the public" with members of her family.

The emails were shared with her husband, Michael Renna, the president and chief operating officer of South Jersey Industries, the parent company of South Jersey Gas, which had sought to build a pipeline through the environmentally sensitive pine barrens area.

NJ Advance Media staff writers Matt Arco and Claude Brodesser-Akner, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tim Darragh may be reached at tdarragh@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @timdarragh. Find NJ.com on Facebook.