The surprising part of the Bridgegate proceedings was there was so little surprising about it. There wasn’t much new news coming out of the announcement that two former top aides to Gov. Christie (Bridget Ann Kelly and Bill Baroni) were indicted and a top confidante (David Wildstein) pleaded guilty to taking part in the politically motivated closing of lanes on the George Washington Bridge, the world’s busiest. Most of what we heard we knew from earlier news reports based on “sources” and leaks.
We never knew who thought up the incredibly stupid scheme to snarl traffic — purposefully done on the first day of school to make it worse. We still don’t. Wildstein, who went to high school with Christie who appointed him to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in a newly created position, has said Christie knew about the closings as they were happening, which Christie denied. Wildstein’s lawyer, Alan Zegas, repeated it after the guilty plea, saying “evidence exists” Christie knew about the closings as they happened. We haven’t seen that evidence, either.
Christie was out of town Friday when it came down in Newark, on another of his out of state travels to prepare himself for running for the Republican nomination for president. He resorted to Twitter to interpret the proceedings as exoneration: “Today’s charges make clear that what I’ve said from day one is true. I had no knowledge or involvement in the planing or execution of this act.”
I wrote his biography with Michael Symons: Chris Christie: The Inside Story of His Rise To Power and have reported on him for more than a decade. I never believed he birthed the outrageous plan to punish a Democratic mayor for not endorsing his re-election effort or that he approved someone else’s sick proposal. He’s too smart for that. He had to know it would wind up being the ugly stain on him it has become.
Another thing we don’t know for sure is when did Christie find out and what did he do then?
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, who succeeded Christie in the job, indicated he expected no more indictments involving the closing of lanes “based on the evidence that is currently available to us.” Those were well chosen words. Sometimes the indicted offer up new material in exchange for a better deal in a plea bargain. Sometimes new things come out in trial. Wildstein would be the key prosecution witness.
Fishman declined to say if he expected any indictments involving other issues under probe. David Samson, who Christie named chairman of the NY/NJ Port Authority, resigned that post. The Port Authority operates the three major New York City area airports. He reportedly had United Airlines arrange a special commercial flight so he could fly to a South Carolina home on weekends. It was cancelled after Samson resigned the job. Then Samson resigned from his law firm which was renamed to take his name off the door. If Samson is charged with anything, at age 75, he might want to talk to investigators too.
Christie’s political future isn’t dead, but as we used to say in school, he has one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel. Any more negative news will do him in. Add to that, New Jersey is hardly an example to hold up as the nation’s future: high taxes, high unemployment, lots of corruption. History shows his campaign to reform Social Security is hardly the stuff of success.
The Republican presidential nomination bench gets new candidates almost every day and people who back wannabees financially have to decide how to eliminate most to whittle it down to a reasonable number. Christie’s basic defense alone could be what does him in.
If your defense is you didn’t know what the people around you are doing you don’t have much of a defense. And there is another unanswered question: Why did he create an atmosphere that made people he hired or appointed to responsible office think they could get by with such an idiotic and dangerous scheme?
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