'I felt like I was losing my mind' - Bridgegate defendant's last days working for Christie
NEWARK, N.J. - By mid-December 2013, Bridget Anne Kelly said, she was petrified. Gov. Christie had convened a meeting of his top aides and demanded that anyone who had previous knowledge of a September traffic study at the George Washington Bridge inform his chief of staff, Kevin O'Dowd, or chief counsel, Charles McKenna.
NEWARK, N.J. - By mid-December 2013, Bridget Anne Kelly said, she was petrified.
Gov. Christie had convened a meeting of his top aides and demanded that anyone who had previous knowledge of a September traffic study at the George Washington Bridge inform his chief of staff, Kevin O'Dowd, or chief counsel, Charles McKenna.
This seemed odd to Kelly, the governor's deputy chief of staff. She had told a number of people in the room, including Christie and O'Dowd, about the study, according to her testimony.
She had even told Christie that a mayor had called wondering if his town, which had experienced days of massive traffic jams, was being targeted for "government retribution," and that the governor had been dismissive.
Taking the stand in her own defense for the second day, Kelly described her final months working in the governor's office as an "alternate world" that ultimately resulted in her firing when emails made public in January 2014 appeared to link her to a political payback scheme.
On Dec. 12, O'Dowd called Kelly, and she reminded him of their August conversation about the study, she testified Monday in federal court.
The next day, Christie and O'Dowd were each having a "memory issue," she said. Kelly, who had been on the job only since the spring, said she did not believe she could trust anyone in the governor's office.
"Everyone's livelihoods depended on Chris Christie," she told jurors, crying, "including mine."
Christie maintains that he had no knowledge before or during the lane closures.
The bridge issue died down until Jan. 8, when news organizations disclosed emails that appeared to link Kelly and David Wildstein, a former Port Authority official, to a plot to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich.
Told not to come to work that day and seeing news trucks parked outside her house, Kelly said, her voice breaking, "I felt like I was losing my mind."
Prosecutors allege that Kelly and Bill Baroni, Christie's former top executive appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, conspired with Wildstein to close lanes at the bridge to punish Sokolich.
The mayor's perceived transgression: refusing to endorse Christie's reelection campaign that year.
Kelly and Baroni, both 44 years old, are each charged with nine felony counts, including misusing Port Authority resources, in connection with the lane closures. Wildstein pleaded guilty last year and is a cooperating witness.
Kelly completed her direct testimony Monday, and prosecutors began to cross-examine her as the trial entered its sixth week. She spent much of the day providing context to emails and text messages that prosecutors allege point to her involvement in a conspiracy.
For example, on Sept. 10, the second day of the lane closures, Sokolich texted Baroni that the gridlock was preventing students from getting to school on time. Wildstein forwarded the message to Kelly, who replied, "Is it wrong that I am smiling?"
She added that she felt "badly about the kids," to which Wildstein replied, "They are the children of Buono voters," a reference to Christie's opponent in the gubernatorial race, Democratic State Sen. Barbara Buono.
Asked by her attorney what she meant, Kelly said Wildstein had been touting the success of the traffic study, which he claimed had improved traffic flow for the majority of commuters.
"I wasn't sitting there smiling or gloating," Kelly testified. "I was happy for David, and I should have used different words. But I was happy the first day of the study was successful."
"But on the other hand, the children were late for school," Kelly told jurors. "I'm a mother. I have four kids. That really upset me. That bothered me."
She said she paid no attention to Wildstein's reference to Buono.
Wildstein, then a top Christie operative at the Port Authority, told Kelly in June 2013 that he had been developing a study with engineers and police officers at the agency, Kelly said Friday. She said he asked her to run the plan by the governor, who signed off on it.
On Monday, Michael Critchley Sr., Kelly's attorney, asked Kelly to walk jurors through her last days in the governor's office.
He showed video clips of two Christie news conferences, one on Dec. 2, in which he is so dismissive of the lane-closure story that he jokes he "was actually the guy working the cones" at the bridge, and one on Dec. 13, which followed his morning meeting with senior staff.
In the second video, Christie tells reporters he had made it "very clear to everybody on my senior staff that if anyone had knowledge about this that they needed to come forward to tell me about it, and they've all assured me that they don't."
Just minutes before the news conference, though, Kelly said she told O'Dowd, "I knew about the traffic study, you knew about the traffic study, the governor knew about the traffic study."
O'Dowd responded affirmatively, Kelly said, adding that the two discussed that lawmakers had issued a subpoena to Wildstein seeking documents related to the lane closures.
Kelly testified that she told O'Dowd she had deleted emails about the issue in a "panic" but that Wildstein would likely have them. "One thing I knew was that David has everything," she told jurors.
Kelly was able to find two related emails, including one on Sept. 12 that summarized Sokolich's phone conversation with a staffer in the governor's office in which the mayor expressed concern about "government retribution."
Kelly said Monday that she alerted Christie to the message that evening, after a long day in Seaside Heights, where they had responded to a boardwalk fire.
"It's a Port Authority project. Let Wildstein handle it," Christie told Kelly, according to her testimony.
"That was the end of it," she told jurors.
When she showed the email to O'Dowd on Dec. 13, he did not reprimand her, Kelly testified.
On Jan. 8, news organizations disclosed email and text exchanges, including Kelly's "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" from August. Wildstein replied: "Got it."
Kelly received a phone call the evening of Jan. 8 from someone who told her he would be her attorney, according to the testimony.
Kelly didn't name the lawyer in court, but it was Walter Timpone, a former federal prosecutor who Christie appointed to the state Supreme Court this year.
"He was told to contact me," Kelly testified.
"What else were you told?" Critchley asked.
"That they - a job would be found for me. That I wouldn't have to worry about anything," Kelly said. "And that it would be OK."
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