Former aide in text: Christie ‘flat out lied’ in bridge case
Former aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Bridget Anne Kelly, entered Federal Court in Newark, N.J. for a status conference during jury selection in her trial on Tuesday. (Michael Karas/The Record of Bergen County via AP)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former aide to Gov. Chris Christie, Christina Renna, testified in May 2014 before New Jersey lawmakers probing the George Washington Bridge lane closures scandal. Renna texted to a colleague that the New Jersey governor “flat out lied” during a news conference about the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal, according to a new court filing.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie reacted to a question during a Dec. 2013 news conference in Trenton, N.J. A former aide to Christie texted to a colleague that the New Jersey governor “flat out lied” during the news conference about the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal, according to a new court filing.
NEWARK, N.J. » A former aide to Gov. Chris Christie texted to a colleague during a news conference about the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal that Christie “flat out lied” about the involvement of his senior staff and campaign manager, according to a new court filing.
A transcript of the text is contained in court filings submitted late Tuesday by attorneys representing Bill Baroni, who faces trial next month with Christie’s ex-deputy chief of staff on charges they helped orchestrate the September 2013 lane closures.
The closures were meant to create traffic jams in the city of Fort Lee to punish its Democratic mayor for not endorsing the Republican governor, prosecutors say.
Christie today denied that he lied.
“I absolutely dispute it. It’s ridiculous. It’s nothing new,” Christie told reporters in New York City after appearing on a sports talk radio show this morning. “There’s nothing new to talk about.”
He also noted that the information came from a filing from a defense lawyer and wasn’t from someone who was under oath.
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Christie, who is advising GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, wasn’t charged in the lane-closing scandal and has denied knowing anything about it.
The text exchange between Christina Renna, Christie’s director of intergovernmental affairs, and Peter Sheridan, a staffer on his re-election campaign, came while Christie was telling reporters at a December 2013 news conference that no one in his office was involved in the lane closings.
Renna texted Sheridan that Christie “flat out lied” when he said his senior staff and campaign manager Bill Stepien weren’t involved.
According to the court filing, Sheridan texted Renna to say Christie was “doing fine. Holding his own up there.”
Renna responds with, “Yes. But he lied. And if emails are found with the subpoena or (campaign) emails are uncovered in discovery if it comes to that it could be bad.”
Stepien’s lawyer, Kevin Marino, today called the notion Stepien was involved “categorically false and irresponsible.”
Renna’s attorney, Henry Klingeman, said today his client “will answer questions publicly when she testifies at the upcoming trial, not before.”
At the news conference in question, Christie said he had “made it very clear to everybody on my senior staff that if anyone had any knowledge about this that they needed to come forward to me and tell me about it, and they’ve all assured me that they don’t.”
Stepien was Renna’s boss when she joined the office of intergovernmental affairs in 2010, Renna told a legislative committee in 2014. Christie’s ex-deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, eventually took over for Stepien. The office was responsible for outreach to county and local officials.
Christie cut ties with Stepien in January 2014 after the nearly two-hour news conference in which the governor apologized for the lane closures but denied any knowledge of them or a cover-up.
Stepien, who is now executive director of a think-tank created by Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, has not been charged.
Baroni, a former high-ranking Christie appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — the agency that operates the bridge — and Kelly are charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and civil rights violations.
Former Port Authority official David Wildstein, a high school classmate of Christie’s, has pleaded guilty and will testify for the government. Defense attorneys are expected to portray him as the driving force behind the scheme and the only one with the authority to effect the lane realignment.
Associated Press writers Ezra Kaplan in New York and Michael Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this story.
20 responses to “Former aide in text: Christie ‘flat out lied’ in bridge case”
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Momona Man should’ve really been Drumpf’s VP pick. Two pumpkins in a pod!
Christie is a ridiculous figure with his slavish devotion to Trump. He tried to sell his shrunken soul for the VP selection and got passed over. Bad dude and inept as a governor.
Justice Department officials decided against an investigation into the Clinton Foundation after the FBI requested the agency open a case into allegations of corruption stemming from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
But the Justice Department’s public integrity unit declined to pursue the probe given what it characterized as insufficient evidence, according to a CNN report Wednesday.
The State Department’s seemingly preferrential treatment of foundation donors under Clinton’s leadership has raised questions about whether she and her aides ignored conflicts of interest in order to help the charity’s most generous donors. Emails made public this week have deepened suspicions that donors were afforded access and favors that other outsiders could not get from the agency.
FBI Director James Comey declined to comment last month on whether the FBI’s reported investigation of the Clinton Foundation had concluded with a separate probe into Clinton’s emails. For months, reports had hinted at a widening FBI inquiry related to the philanthropy’s foreign activities.
They are doing something very similar on Oahu right now except in Hawaii, no one goes to jail, they only get richer.
As long as the ever-incompetent Scott Nago is running the show, I doubt we’ll ever have an election go off without some kind of snafu i.e. running out of ballots, polling places moving at the last minute or closing early, etc. I believe the legal term is electoral fraud or vote rigging.
Christie also says he never ate a second helping in his life and he absolutely did not steal the donuts in junior high school. And he only used the state helicopter ten times for personal use, not one more time.
Liar liar, pants on fire!
Liar liar pants on fire.
Where’s the headline about who was seated in the “invited” section of Hilary’s rally yesterday?
dontbelieve—agreed–the other newspapers are all galore on finding the email connection between the Clinton Foundation and her State Department job–but not with the SA–that’s anti administration!!!!!
Yup, and not a peep about the newest of Clinton’s email scandals.
There was no “invited” section. There was no invitation. The rally was open to the public.
It’s impossible to keep track of all the lying on here.
Bsdetection and Klastri do not seem to know how political campaign rallies are organized. Although Hillary’s rally may have been open to the public, the so-called public does get to decide on their own to sit behind the candidate. Not at all. The people who sit behind the candidate are hand-picked by campaign organizers to reflect a certain image or to support the candidate’s message. It is political theater with the campaign manager serving as director.
“Where’s the headline about who was seated in the “invited” section of Hilary’s rally yesterday?”
Seriously? If you want a headline from yesterday, try looking at yesterday’s news.
Is there something wicked this way coming? Buy GOLD
How any sensible person who has reviewed the current and past facts could actually vote for that demo nominated thing is beyond me…
Can see how other countries are very concerned when all the rules purported to be true in the US are denied, flouted abnegated and betrayed–every day!
Incoming DOJ Head, Chris Christie.
“Fat out lied”! Is he still doing liposuction and laparoscopic surgery on Obamacare?
Republican liars…
If you want to be a good rich liar just become a politician. Get in with the right group of people and you got it made until one of them turn their back on you.