The Port Authority declined to answer other questions about the transaction. But it issued a brief statement saying it was motivated by the scarcity of waterfront land for future growth and that the deal was “based on an arm’s-length negotiation.”

Meanwhile, the agency hired the law firm where Mr. Christie once worked — now called Dughi, Hewit & Domalewski — to represent it in the developer lawsuits. The senior partner handling the cases, Craig A. Domalewski, served as a senior counsel to the governor during the first two years of his administration.

The Port’s Fate

What will happen to the peninsula remains in doubt. Only one 544-unit apartment complex that was part of the old plan has been built. The city has solicited new proposals from developers for the land it still owns. The Port Authority is generating some money from the site through leases and fees from businesses there — most notably, a Royal Caribbean Cruises line terminal. But the notion that the site could be converted into a container terminal is not financially feasible, former officials said. Internal estimates put the cost at $1 billion to extend rail and turnpike access, even before constructing the port itself.

Mr. Baroni, who resigned last year in the fallout from the bridge scandal, acknowledged in his deposition last year this impossibility. Asked what other possibilities there might be, Mr. Baroni mentioned only a commuter ferry terminal. Even so, he defended the steep price paid by the agency.

“Worth every penny,” Mr. Baroni said. “I have a responsibility to fulfill the mission of the Port Authority. And when given the opportunity to get some of the last remaining port-front property and not have it be something that’s not port purposes, I should do it. And I did it. And I was right then, and I was right yesterday, and I’m right today.”