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Ex-Christie Aide Says He Was Duped About Bridge Lane Closings Ex-Christie Aide Says He Was Duped About Bridge Lane Closings
(about 5 hours later)
NEWARK — The simple question, delivered early in the day, went right to the heart of a contorted political plot. NEWARK — The simple question went right to the heart of a contorted political plot.
Why, Bill Baroni’s lawyer asked him here in federal court, didn’t you call Mayor Mark Sokolich back? Why, Bill Baroni’s lawyer asked him here in federal court on Monday, didn’t you call Mayor Mark Sokolich back?
“I have asked myself that question a thousand times,” said Mr. Baroni, sitting on the stand Monday morning, and shaking his head. “I think of it first thing in the morning, the last thing at night.” “I have asked myself that question a thousand times,” Mr. Baroni said, sitting on the stand and shaking his head. “I think of it first thing in the morning, the last thing at night.”
Mr. Baroni, once a top official in the administration of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, is accused of approving the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, then covering them up as a traffic study, knowing full well that they had been intended to punish Mr. Sokolich, the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, because he had declined to endorse Mr. Christie, a Republican. Mr. Baroni, once a top official in the administration of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, is accused of approving the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, then covering them up as a traffic study, knowing that they had been intended to punish Mr. Sokolich of Fort Lee, a Democrat, because he had declined to endorse Mr. Christie, a Republican.
Mr. Baroni said he was told to stand down by David Wildstein, once one of Mr. Baroni’s closest friends, who worked with him at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the bridge, and who has pleaded guilty to shutting down the lanes and is now the prosecution’s chief witness against Mr. Baroni and another former Christie official. Mr. Baroni said he was told to stand down by David Wildstein, once one of Mr. Baroni’s closest friends, who worked with him at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the bridge. Mr. Wildstein pleaded guilty to plotting to close the lanes and is now the prosecution’s chief witness against Mr. Baroni and another former Christie administration official, Bridget Anne Kelly.
“David said to me, ‘Let me handle it,’” Mr. Baroni continued, then grimaced and closed his eyes. “I listened to him. I have regretted it ever since.”“David said to me, ‘Let me handle it,’” Mr. Baroni continued, then grimaced and closed his eyes. “I listened to him. I have regretted it ever since.”
Over eight days on the stand here earlier in the trial, Mr. Wildstein described Mr. Baroni as being intimately involved in the scheme, even deciding that the lane closings would start the first day of school in September 2013, to maximize the catastrophic traffic jam that would, and did, ensue. Mr. Baroni repeated the same answer for five hours, first in direct testimony and then in sometimes scathing cross-examination: I listened to David; it was his project; he lied to me.
Mr. Wildstein described Mr. Baroni as the champion of the traffic study lie. And Mr. Baroni, he said, bragged to Mr. Christie about the scheme at a Sept. 11 memorial service, telling him that there were enormous traffic jams in Fort Lee and that Mr. Sokolich was not having his calls returned. “I believed David when he said that, because he spoke for Chris Christie,” he said.
The prosecution has displayed records of increasingly panicked phone calls, emails and text messages from Mr. Sokolich to Mr. Baroni, reporting public safety problems, with emergency vehicles stuck in gridlock, and challenges getting children stuck on buses to school. “It’s maddening,” the mayor texted Mr. Baroni. Over eight days on the stand earlier in the trial, Mr. Wildstein described Mr. Baroni as attentive to the details of the scheme, even deciding that the lane closings would start on the first day of school in September 2013 to maximize the catastrophic traffic jam that would — and did — ensue.
Mr. Wildstein and Mr. Baroni responded with what they called, in other emails displayed by prosecutors, “Radio silence.” For five days of the closings, Mr. Baroni ignored the mayor’s increasingly panicked messages reporting public safety problems, with emergency vehicles stuck in gridlock and challenges getting children on buses to school. “It’s maddening,” Mr. Sokolich texted Mr. Baroni.
Mr. Wildstein testified that Mr. Baroni delighted in the mayor’s frustration, so much that his mocking of the mayor’s “it’s maddening” message became an inside joke. Mr. Wildstein testified that Mr. Baroni delighted in the mayor’s frustration, so much so that his mocking of Mr. Sokolich’s “it’s maddening” became an inside joke. And Mr. Baroni, he said, bragged to the governor about the scheme at a Sept. 11 memorial service, telling him that there were enormous traffic jams in Fort Lee and that Mr. Sokolich’s calls were not being returned.
But taking the stand here Monday, Mr. Baroni, a former New Jersey state senator, told a starkly different story, saying Mr. Wildstein had duped him, too, into believing the lane closings were a legitimate traffic study, one that was important to the governor, and that he had baldly lied to him that there was no punishment involved. But taking the stand on Monday, Mr. Baroni, a former New Jersey state senator, told a starkly different story. He said Mr. Wildstein had duped him into believing the lane closings were a legitimate traffic study, one that was important to the governor, and had baldly lied to him that there was no punishment involved.
Confronted over and over with the evidence against him — texts, emails, phone records and photographs — Mr. Baroni said repeatedly, and regretfully, “I believed David Wildstein.” That belief, Mr. Baroni said, curbed his politician’s instinct to return calls from Mr. Sokolich, with whom he had spent years cultivating a close relationship.
That belief, he said, was enough to curb his natural politician’s instinct to return the calls from the mayor, with whom he had spent years cultivating a close relationship. “I listened to David Wildstein when he said to me, if I call the mayor back, that because of my relationship with him, that I would wimp out, give in, and stop, and ruin the study, which was very important,” Mr. Baroni said.
“I listened to David Wildstein when he said to me if I call the mayor back, that because of my relationship with him, that I would wimp out, give in, and stop and ruin the study, which was very important,” Mr. Baroni said. Monday was the first time Mr. Baroni has spoken publicly about the lane closings, which ultimately became a scandal that wounded Mr. Christie’s presidential ambitions.
His recollection, as-yet unchecked by cross-examination, was the first time Mr. Baroni has spoken publicly about the lane closings, which ultimately became a scandal that deeply wounded Mr. Christie’s presidential ambitions. Mr. Baroni did not contradict Mr. Wildstein’s most politically explosive assertion that Mr. Christie knew about the lane closings as they were happening.
Mr. Baroni did not contradict Mr. Wildstein’s most politically explosive assertion, that Mr. Christie knew about the lane closings as they were happening, and that there was coordination with the governor’s office throughout the five days of the closings and the cover up in the months afterward. But as Mr. Baroni described it, he was more of a functionary at the Port Authority, while Mr. Wildstein was its chief link to “Trenton,” code for the governor. Mr. Christie told Mr. Baroni to hire Mr. Wildstein. Mr. Wildstein did not report to Mr. Baroni, and Mr. Baroni had no power to fire him.
But as Mr. Baroni described it, he was more of a functionary at the Port Authority, while Mr. Wildstein was an independent operator and the chief representative of “Trenton” — or the governor’s office. The governor told Mr. Baroni to hire Mr. Wildstein — Mr. Wildstein himself said on the stand that Mr. Christie called him “Mr. Wolf,” after the character in the movie “Pulp Fiction” who specializes in cleaning up dead bodies. And Mr. Baroni had no power to fire him. Mr. Baroni, 44, has to give the jury reason to doubt not only what Mr. Wildstein said, but also the accounts of Port Authority officials who testified that Mr. Baroni pushed to close the lanes again after New York officials ordered them reopened on the fifth day of the purported study, as well as those of police officers who said that Mr. Baroni lied and tried to pin the plot on them in testimony to the New Jersey Legislature.
Shown a photograph of himself laughing in a small huddle with Mr. Wildstein and Mr. Christie at the Sept. 11 memorial, on the third day of the lane closings, Mr. Baroni recalled only that they had laughed about the fact that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York was arriving at the ceremony by motorcycle. On Monday, Mr. Baroni portrayed himself as a dedicated public servant struggling in vain to control a crisis he barely knew anything about. He had gone to the Port Authority to fix what he called “gridlock” — an ill-chosen word for the situation — between New York and New Jersey officials. He said he was too busy attending to the agency’s $7 billion annual budget to monitor all of Mr. Wildstein’s doings.
Shown a photograph of himself laughing in a small huddle with Mr. Wildstein and the governor at the Sept. 11 memorial — where Mr. Wildstein testified they had told the governor about the lane closings, then in their third day — Mr. Baroni recalled only that they had laughed about the fact that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, a Democrat, was arriving at the ceremony by motorcycle.
“Are you laughing about the Fort Lee lanes?” Jennifer Mara, a lawyer for Mr. Baroni, asked him.“Are you laughing about the Fort Lee lanes?” Jennifer Mara, a lawyer for Mr. Baroni, asked him.
“Absolutely not,” he replied. “Absolutely not,” Mr. Baroni replied. As soon as Mr. Sokolich mentioned his suspicions of “punitive overtones” to the shutdowns, on the fourth day of the closings, Mr. Baroni said he demanded Mr. Wildstein tell him if that was true.
“Was there any mention of political retribution?” Ms. Mara asked. “He said, ‘Absolutely not,’ and I believed him,” Mr. Baroni said.
“No,” Mr. Baroni replied. Mr. Baroni also forwarded the message from the mayor to Bill Stepien, Mr. Christie’s campaign manager, believing, he said, that the matter was important to the governor.
“Was there any mention of punishment?” she asked. On the fifth day, when Patrick J. Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority, who is appointed by Mr. Cuomo, ordered the lanes reopened, Mr. Baroni told him there could be “no public discourse” about the matter. Mr. Foye and his chief of staff testified that Mr. Baroni pushed to close the lanes again.
“No,” he said. But Mr. Baroni testified that he was only trying to play peacemaker between Mr. Foye and David Samson, a confidant of Mr. Christie and chairman of the Port Authority board.
“Was there any mention of political endorsements?” “I now have something where the governor of New Jersey has knowledge of, involvement, on a traffic study, an issue that mattered to him,” Mr. Baroni said. “Now I’ve got David Samson, who’s the governor’s best friend, who can’t stand Pat Foye, telling me to go to his office and punch Pat Foye in the face.”
“No,” Mr. Baroni said again. He understood from Mr. Samson and Mr. Wildstein, he said, that he had to persuade Mr. Foye to continue the traffic study, because it was “the governor’s project.”
Lee Cortes, a prosecutor, was accusing and at times incredulous as he began his cross-examination of Mr. Baroni, which will continue on Tuesday.
He played a voice mail message Mr. Sokolich left for Mr. Baroni on the second day of the closings, complaining of chaos in Fort Lee.
“You listened to him,” Mr. Cortes said. “You heard his voice, how he sounded. You knew him. You didn’t call him back? He mentioned these things — ‘total gridlock,’ children getting to school, ‘who’s mad at me’ — you didn’t call him back?”