“The reference was ‘Mr. Wolf,’ the problem-solver in that movie,” Mr. Wildstein testified here in federal court on Wednesday.

“I understood it perfectly,” he said, as Mr. Baroni’s message was enlarged on a screen above the court. Mr. Baroni “was going to Trenton to fix the problem.”

In fact, he made the problem worse.

Prosecutors now say that Mr. Baroni, who was Mr. Christie’s top staff appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge, lied before the legislative committee, part of an effort to cover up the punitive nature of the closings.

Mr. Wildstein, who has described himself as the “bad cop” for Mr. Baroni and Mr. Christie at the Port Authority, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to close the lanes and is now the prosecution’s star witness against Mr. Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, a former deputy chief of staff to Mr. Christie, at their trial on charges including conspiracy and fraud.

Mr. Wildstein had testified on Tuesday that he and Mr. Baroni told Mr. Christie about the lane closings while they were going on.