Fort Lee lane closure scandal

The George Washington Bridge is marked I-95 over the Hudson River between Fort Lee, center, and Manhattan, New York City

George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River, looking west from Manhattan to Fort Lee and the Palisades

The Fort Lee lane closure scandal, also known as Bridgegate, is a U.S. political scandal in which staff members and political appointees of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie conspired to create traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey, starting at a New York-bound, toll plaza entrance to the George Washington Bridge. The problems began on Monday, September 9, 2013, after two toll lanes for this entryway were closed to local traffic from Fort Lee and surrounding communities prior to the morning rush hour and used for traffic from state and interstate expressways instead, resulting in massive back-ups in Fort Lee.

Some of Christie's advisers and staff, including the governor's deputy chief of staff and press secretary, as well as three of his senior appointees to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (which manages the bridge traffic), were alleged to have been involved in covering up these actions and/or suppressing public disclosures. Local area officials and emergency services officers, as well as the general public, were not notified of the lane closures. Fort Lee officials declared the unannounced closures a threat to public safety, noting multiple cases in which emergency services responses had been delayed, and said that schools had been disrupted by the delayed arrivals of students and teachers who had been caught in the traffic jams.

The local-access lanes were finally reopened during the morning rush hour of Friday, September 13 by order of Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye (an appointee of Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic New York Governor), who stated that the Port Authority process had been subverted without his knowledge and that he believed the closures were unlawful.

Several of Christie's appointees and aides resigned or were forced out as investigations into the closures intensified. David Wildstein, on whose direct orders the traffic lanes had been closed, and Bill Baroni, who had told the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee that the closures had only been for a traffic study, resigned following sworn testimony by Foye and other Port Authority officials that the two men had violated protocols and had sought to hide their plans for the lane closings from Fort Lee and other officials. Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's deputy chief of staff, who had e-mailed Wildstein advising him that it was "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee", was fired by Christie, who said she had not been forthcoming with him about her involvement in the closures. Christie also withdrew support for his close political adviser and election campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who made a derogatory remark about the Fort Lee mayor and displayed callous indifference to the problems being caused in the aftermath, to become the state Republican Party chair.

One hypothesis, which has been the most frequently reported and many Democrats believe, was that the lanes were closed as political retribution against Christie's political opponents, particularly Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for not supporting Christie, a Republican, in the 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election. Investigators are also examining other possible motives, such as whether the closures were intended to affect a major real estate development project, which was a top priority for Sokolich, that was underway at the Fort Lee bridge access point. The story has garnered national attention because Governor Christie has been considered a front-runner among potential Republican candidates for the 2016 U.S. presidential race.

Background

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

File:William Baroni.jpg

Bill Baroni, Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich

Main articles: George Washington Bridge and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

The George Washington Bridge, a double-decked toll bridge, is the busiest motor-vehicle bridge in the world. It carries Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1/9 over the Hudson River between Fort Lee in Bergen County, New Jersey and northern Manhattan in New York City. The north end of the heavily traveled New Jersey Turnpike, part of Interstate 95, is coterminous with the bridge up to the state line with New York. Also leading to the bridge in New Jersey are U.S. Route 46 (coterminous with U.S. Route 1/9 up to the state line with New York), U.S. Route 9W (final approach via surface streets), N.J. Route 4, and the Palisades Interstate Parkway.

There is a toll to go from New Jersey to New York. There are a total of 29 operating toll lanes, spread among three toll plazas, for the dual-level bridge. At the main toll plaza for the upper level, there are twelve toll lanes and a Fort Lee entrance at Martha Washington Way (also called Park Avenue). During rush hours, for the past 30 years or longer, the three lanes located farthest to the right (south end of the toll plaza) are ordinarily reserved for local traffic entering from Fort Lee and the surrounding communities. This local traffic is segregated by movable traffic cones from the heavier traffic of the major highways. There are other Fort Lee street entrances, which do not have dedicated toll lanes, to the lower and upper levels of the bridge.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is run by a twelve-member Board of Commissioners, which includes a chairman. Each state's governor, with the approval of that state's senate, appoints six members to the Board over time, with the members' terms staggered. A governor may veto the acts of that state's board members. Several other positions at the Port Authority are appointed by the governors; by tradition, the top two executives are appointed by the governors.

Chris Christie, a Republican, was first elected Governor of New Jersey in November 2009 and re-elected in November 2013. During his first term, he appointed Bill Baroni as deputy executive director of the Port Authority. David Wildstein, a local politician and political blogger who had known Christie during high school, was hired by Baroni with Christie's approval in May 2010. As director of interstate capital projects, Wildstein was New Jersey's second highest executive at the Port Authority, and often substituted for Baroni at major meetings.

In the spring of 2013, Matt Mowers, regional political director for Christie's re-election campaign, asked Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for his endorsement of Christie for governor. Sokolich initially said he would consider endorsing Christie, but ultimately supported State Senator Barbara Buono, Christie's Democratic opponent in the election, instead.

Key figures involved in the Fort Lee lane closure scandal

Entity	Person	Role	Notes
Port Authority
	Bill Baroni	Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority (Appointed by Christie)	Resigned on December 13, 2013; supervisor of David Wildstein; planned and covered up the toll lane closures
	Patrick Foye	Executive Director of the Port Authority (Appointed by Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo)	Authored e-mail critical of closure and ordered re-opening of the local toll lanes on September 13, 2013
	David Samson	Chairman of the Port Authority Board of Commissioners (Appointed by Christie)	Mentioned in September 13, 2013, e-mail from Wildstein to Kelly as seeking to retaliate against Foye for re-opening the toll lanes
	David Wildstein	Director of Interstate Capital Projects at the Port Authority (Appointed by Christie; worked under Baroni)	Resigned on December 13, 2013 since he planned and covered up the toll lane closures; gave direct orders to Port Authority staff to implement the toll lane closures and to make no disclosures to Fort Lee officials and the public
Office of the Governor
	Chris Christie	Governor of New Jersey	Claimed no direct knowledge about his aides' involvement until he read news on January 8, 2014, based on subpoenaed communications; authorized an internal investigation in Dec 2013 that purportedly showed no involvement by his staff
	Michael Drewniak	Press Secretary to Christie	On September 17, 2013, Baroni told Wildstein to "Call Drewniak"; met with Wildstein on December 4; was involved in addressing the aftermath, as shown in a series of subpoenaed written communications
	Regina Egea	Director of the Authorities Unit to Christie	Received the Foye e-mail on September 13, 2013; was scheduled to replace O'Dowd if his nomination to State Attorney General was confirmed by the New Jersey Senate
	Bridget Anne Kelly	Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs to Christie	Authored August 13, 2013, e-mail to Wildstein: "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee"; fired by Christie on January 9, 2014
	Charlie McKenna	Chief Counsel to Christie	Ran Dec 2013 investigation into Governor's Office involvement (with O'Dowd); became director of NJSDA that month and was replaced by Christopher Porrino; purportedly the "Charlie" in subpoenaed texts and e-mails
	Kevin O'Dowd	Chief of Staff to Christie	Ran Governor's Office investigation (with McKenna); nominated in December 2013 for State Attorney General; January confirmation hearing was postponed due to potential conflict since he ran Christie's investigation
	Bill Stepien	Christie's political consultant and election campaign manager (including governor elections in 2009 and 2013); Former Deputy Chief of Staff to Christie (prior to Fort Lee scandal events)	Removed by Christie on January 8, 2014, as political adviser, and nominee for Republican Party State Chairman for New Jersey, due to his knowledge and comments about the aftermath based on subpoenaed communications
State and Federal Investigators
	Paul J. Fishman	United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey	Opened an inquiry in January 2014; in 2009, sworn into his position, which had been held by Christie in 2008
	Reid Schar	Special counsel to a joint special investigative committee for the New Jersey Legislature	To assist the committee in the legal aspects of their investigation; does not have any role in any prosecution. Schar's firm represented the Democrats in the New Jersey legislative redistricting battles of 2011 and 2001.
	Loretta Weinberg	Co-chair of a joint special investigative committee for the New Jersey Legislature	State Senate majority leader; On January 27, 2014, the New Jersey Senate and Assembly voted to create a joint committee in order to take over the investigation from the Assembly Transportation Committee
	John Wisniewski	Co-chair of a joint special investigative committee for the New Jersey Legislature and chair of Assembly Transportation Committee	Deputy speaker of the Assembly; the Assembly Transportation Committee began hearings in November 2013 and obtained subpoenaed documents that began to identify key figures and their actions in this scandal

Events

During the week of August 4, 2013, Christie met with David Samson, Christie's hand-picked chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority. The deputy speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, John Wisniewski, who as chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee has been leading the Assembly's investigation into the closures, has suggested that Christie appointee David Wildstein, who ordered the closures, must have believed the meeting was related to the lane closures, because a reference to the meeting was included in the subpoenaed documents Wildstein submitted in which all information not pertaining to the Fort Lee lane closures had been redacted.

On August 13, Bridget Anne Kelly, the deputy chief of staff to Christie, sent an eight-word e-mail to David Wildstein, a senior official at the Port Authority with close ties to Christie, that read, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee." Wildstein responded to Kelly's e-mail: "Got it." Subsequent e-mail exchanges also implicated Port Authority Chairman David Samson by name in the toll lane closures.

On September 6, Wildstein instructed George Washington Bridge manager, Robert Durando, not to tell anyone in Fort Lee about the upcoming closure, not even the police. When he questioned the order, which he thought was "odd" since he had never been instructed in his 35-year career not to tell host town officials about an event that would disrupt traffic, Wildstein told him "it would impact the study" if people knew and Wildstein "wanted to see what would naturally happen".

On September 6, Wildstein sent an e-mail to Kelly informing her that Governor Christie had approved $60,000 to fund a traffic study for the city of Springfield in Union County. The Democratic mayor of Springfield, David Amlen, did not endorse Christie for reelection and was not informed of the approval of their requested traffic study until after Christie had won re-election.

Closure

Beginning on September 9, 2013, two of the three dedicated toll lanes at one of the Fort Lee entrances to the upper level of the George Washington Bridge were closed on orders from David Wildstein without notification of Fort Lee government and police officials. In an area that normally experiences a great deal of traffic, the lane closings caused a significant increase in traffic congestion. This led to major delays for school transportation and police and emergency response within Fort Lee, both during and after the peak hours of travel.

At 8:32 a.m. on September 9, a 9-1-1 call was placed requesting emergency medical services for Florence Genova of Fort Lee. According to the Fort Lee emergency medical services coordinator, traffic jams delayed paramedic response times. Genova subsequently died of cardiac arrest. Genova's daughter told The New York Times that she "wants to stay out of it. It's politics". She noted her mother's advanced age (91) and opined that "it was just her time".

In at least one instance, emergency medical workers were forced to leave their ambulance and respond to a call for assistance on foot because traffic congestion was so heavy. Emergency responders also reported being delayed nearly one hour in rendering assistance to a man experiencing chest pains.

Within hours of the closure, various officials at the Port Authority were being told that the traffic delays posed a threat to public safety. At 9:29 a.m., Matthew Bell, a special assistant to Bill Baroni, e-mailed Baroni informing him of "urgent matter of public safety in Fort Lee". Fort Lee borough administrator Peggy Thomas e-mailed the Port Authority's director of government and community relations, Tina Lado, with her concerns, noting that police and emergency departments received no advance notice of the closures. At 11:24 a.m., Lado e-mailed both David Wildstein and Bill Baroni informing them that due to the closures, police and ambulances were having difficulty responding to emergencies. That e-mail noted two specific incidents: a missing child (later found) and a cardiac arrest. These safety warnings were ignored.

Text messages suggest that officials were pleased about the traffic jams caused by the lane closures. In a September 10 text message subpoenaed in the investigation, an unknown person, whose name is redacted for unknown reasons, responded to Wildstein: "Is it wrong that I'm smiling." Wildstein wrote in response "No." The person replied "I feel badly about the kids. I guess" (referring to school bus delays). Wildstein responded "They are the children of Buono voters," referring to Barbara Buono, Christie's Democratic opponent in the November election. Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, has found evidence purportedly showing that the "I'm smiling" individual was Bridget Kelly.

In other communications, officials used an ethnic pejorative to refer to the Fort Lee mayor Mark Sokolich. In an e-mail from Wildstein responding to Bill Stepien, he stated "It will be a tough November for this little Serbian," derogatorily referring to Sokolich, who is Croatian-American. Baroni also referred to "Serbia" in text messages in another apparent reference to Mayor Sokolich. Sokolich told The Huffington Post: "That slight is offensive to me, and it's offensive to me of everyone of Serbian background. If I were Serbian, I would be absolutely, positively appalled by it." The Serbian remarks received the attention of Serbian and Croatian media, and was commented upon by the Serbian government's Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region.

On September 9, Deputy Chief of Staff Kelly e-mailed David Wildstein and asked about his response, if any, to Fort Lee Mayor Sokolich. Wildstein responded: "Radio silence. His name comes right after Mayor Fulop [of Jersey City]."

On September 11, Robert Durando indicated in a Port Authority e-mail that, if the automated toll lanes were closed permanently in favor of one manned lane for local traffic, it would be "very expensive" since annual toll-collector costs would increase approximately $600,000. This would have covered overtime, as well as stationing reserve employees when a scheduled toll collector was not able to work. He also indicated that there would be additional, but still to be determined costs, for Port Authority police due to their coverage of traffic for a greatly extended rush hour.

On September 12, Port Authority engineers indicated that reported delays for local traffic greatly exceeded any time savings for the major highway traffic based on reported information for vehicle travel times on Interstate 95 and local traffic counts from that week. A PowerPoint analysis estimated that the extra daily morning rush hour time, 2,800 vehicle-hours, endured by local traffic on a typical day greatly outweighed time savings, 966 vehicle-hours, of the I-95 traffic.

On September 12, Fort Lee Mayor wrote to Baroni that "many members of the public have informed me that the Port Authority Police Officers are advising commuters [...] that this recent traffic debacle is the result of a decision that I, as the Mayor, recently made."

Re-opening and immediate aftermath

On September 13, 2013, Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority and an appointee of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, ordered that the lanes be reopened in a strongly worded e-mail to senior Port Authority officials and staff, including Bill Baroni and David Samson. In the e-mail, Foye repeatedly called the decision to close the lanes "hasty and ill-advised", stated that the decision violated policy and long-standing custom at the Port Authority, and that he believed that closing the lanes "violates Federal Law and the laws of both States." Foye also asked his spokesman how could they get the word out. Upon learning this, Baroni attempted to prevent any disclosure in order to keep the public in the dark. Additionally, Baroni forwarded the e-mail to Regina Egea, Christie's Director of the authorities unit overseeing the Port Authority, three hours after it was sent by Foye.

During and after the bridge closures, "hundreds of pages of e-mails and internal documents" show "how Christie loyalists inside the Port Authority worked to orchestrate a cover-up after traffic mayhem" in Fort Lee. In September, as more reporters began asking about the George Washington Bridge problems, officials conferred on how to respond. On September 13, The Record transportation columnist John Cichowski reported the outrage commuters were expressing toward Port Authority following days of long, inbound delays and local authorities' efforts to get an explanation. Then on September 16, a Wall Street Journal reporter asked Port Authority spokesman Coleman about what had occurred after some Journal editors had been in traffic the previous week. "Coleman passed the query up the chain of command" and Wildstein forwarded it to Baroni, commenting "I call bullshit on this." Further inquiries were directed by Coleman to Baroni and Wildstein, asking how they wanted the Port Authority to respond, and Wildstein forwarded one of these inquiries to Christie's press secretary, Michael Drewniak. Coleman also wrote to Baroni and Wildstein, "I will not respond unless instructed to do so."

On September 17, Wildstein informed Baroni that he had received a call from Wall Street Journal reporter Tedd Mann. "Jesus", Baroni replied, "Call [Christie Press Secretary Michael] Drewniak".

On October 9, Philippe Danielides, a senior adviser to David Samson, e-mailed Wildstein a daily news summary and asked "Has any thought been given to writing an op-ed or providing a statement about the GWB study? Or is the plan just to hunker down and grit our way through it?" Wildstein replied "Yes and yes" and forwarded these e-mails to Baroni.

Retaliation against Jersey City Mayor Fulop

Steven Fulop, mayor of Jersey City

Jersey City, center, with Manhattan (across the Hudson River) to its upper right

Steven Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City in Hudson County, has alleged that he was also targeted for political reprisals by the Christie administration for declining to endorse Christie in the 2013 election for governor. Fulop's claim involves many of the same individuals implicated in the Fort Lee lane closures: Bill Stepien, Bridget Kelly, and Bill Baroni. Fulop's claim is supported by an e-mail by David Wildstein dated September 9, 2013. Deputy Chief of Staff Kelly had e-mailed David Wildstein and asked about his response, if any, to Fort Lee Mayor Sokolich. Wildstein responded: "Radio silence. His name comes right after Mayor Fulop."

Jersey City is the second-largest city in New Jersey. On July 1, 2013, Christie had spoken at Fulop's inauguration. Subsequently, Bill Stepien and Bridget Kelly set up a "Mayor's Day" for Fulop, where "quite a contingent" of the Governor's cabinet would meet with the mayor and his staff. At least seven different meetings were scheduled, most on July 23 with some set for July 29.

On July 18, Fulop, a Democrat, communicated his decision not to endorse Republican Chris Christie in the upcoming election. That same day, the Mayor's staff received multiple phone calls from New Jersey officials, within the span of an hour, canceling the meetings with: Jim Leonard (Chief of Staff at the Office of the Treasurer), Joseph Mrozek (Transportation Commissioner), Rich Constable (Commissioner of Community Affairs), and Marc Ferzan (executive director of the Governor's Office of Recovery and Rebuilding, leading Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts). Bill Baroni (Port Authority) called and cancelled the following morning. The last meeting, with Michele Brown (Economic Development), was cancelled the next Monday.

Fulop claimed Christie officials had sought his endorsement. According to Fulop, as an incentive for endorsement, he was "offered increased access to state commissioners"; after he declined to endorse, Fulop reported that "meetings with those officials were canceled within an hour." According to Fulop, the retaliation continued for months: "nearly every single meeting we have requested with state commissioners with regard to proactive Jersey City issues has been unfortunately rejected over the last six months, along with countless requests we made to the Port Authority."

Fulop interpreted the behavior as retaliation for his refusal to endorse. He conveyed this concern in an August 18 e-mail to Bill Baroni, writing: "I am not sure if it is a coincidence that your office cancelled a meeting several weeks back that seemed to be simultaneous to other political conversations elsewhere that were happening. Prior to that you were always very responsive and I sincerely hope the two issues are not related".

Investigations

The first story to bring politics into the mix on the lane closures was done by John Cichowski, the Road Warrior columnist for The Record. Cichowski reported that there was speculation that Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokoloch was being punished for "either for failing to endorse Governor Christie's election bid or for pushing through a $500 million, 47-story high-rise housing development near the bridge, or for failing to support the Port's last toll hike." After that story, and Cichowski's reporting, the closures ended the next day. The story was then followed by other media, including Ted Mann, of The Wall Street Journal, who reported on October 1, 2013, that the bridge toll lanes for local traffic may have been closed by Port Authority political "surrogates" of Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, as an alleged act of political retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for not endorsing Christie in his 2013 re-election campaign. It was a follow-up to his news story on September 17, in which he first broke the story about the contents of Patrick Foye's September 13, e-mail to Port Authority officials, including Bill Baroni and David Samson, that indicated these lane closures endangered the public safety and violated Port Authority protocols for advance notice to local officials, the public, and Port Authority executives, including Foye. The Wall Street Journal and The Record investigated the matter in comprehensive reporting over a series of months, using sources and requests for public records. The scandal broke in full on January 8, 2014, when The Record, published e-mails and text messages obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, which tied Bridget Kelly to the closures. The Record described "vindictive lane closures" intended to cause massive traffic jams. Related news with the e-mails and texts were subsequently published the same day in other news media.

According to The New York Times, the e-mails discussing the lane closure "could represent evidence that government resources were used for political purposes, a potential crime". According to legal experts, federal prosecutors also could "examine whether the obstruction of interstate commerce on the bridge between New Jersey and New York" violated federal law, and either federal or state prosecutors also might "build a cover-up case, rather than one based on the traffic tie-ups themselves".

There are at least six ongoing investigations: New Jersey General Assembly "special investigative committee", which took over from their transportation committee; New Jersey Senate "special investigative committee", which is coordinating with the Assembly committee; the U.S. attorney's office; the Port Authority Inspector General; the FBI; and the United States Senate. New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak also asked the Manhattan District Attorney to investigate.

On January 17, 2014, Alan Zegas, the attorney for David Wildstein, indicated that his client would offer to shed light on the scandal on the condition that he is given immunity from prosecution from the relevant federal and state law enforcement agencies. There has not been any offer of immunity from the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, which is reviewing the matter.

When actions by Christie's administration regarding the Fort Lee lane closures became public, other allegations began to surface unrelated to the lane closings, but related to the administration's abuse of power. On January 18, 2014, Hoboken, Mayor Dawn Zimmer alleged that two of Christie's appointees (including his Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno) threatened to withhold federal Hurricane Sandy relief funds from Hoboken unless Zimmer approved a Governor-favored private development project there.

Assembly Transportation Committee investigation

On October 2, 2013, John Wisniewski, deputy speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly, said that he would open an investigation with the Assembly Transportation Committee to determine whether or not the lane closures were politically motivated. The Port Authority announced it would conduct an internal review on October 16.

Subsequently, Wisniewski called a hearing on the closure for November 25, for which Bill Baroni attended on behalf of the Port Authority. Baroni, who was not sworn in to testify under oath, stated that David Wildstein had ordered the study to determine if closing two of the Fort Lee toll lanes, and assigning them to mainline traffic, would shorten delays for commuters from other parts of New Jersey. Baroni argued that it was unfair that Fort Lee drivers occupied three out of the 12 lanes on the upper level, despite being only 4.5% of all traffic. Committee members pointed out that 4.5% was based on the number of E-ZPass users from Fort Lee that use all approaches to the bridge, and that vehicles from many other towns, besides Fort Lee, use that Fort Lee entrance. Baroni admitted that the actual percentage of vehicles that use that Fort Lee entrance could be higher than 4.5% of overall traffic. Baroni also failed to mention that there are actually 29 operating toll lanes for the bridge when comparing the three dedicated toll lanes for this entrance. Baroni also cited that with the reduction in Fort Lee toll lanes, mainline traffic travel times in the express lane approach to the bridge were four minutes faster on two days. However, he did apologize for the lack of communication, contrary to other Port Authority projects.

Following the hearing, Wisniewski called the closure at best "clumsy and ham-handed" and at worst "political mischief by a political appointee and another political appointee that they did not make available for testimony", referring to Wildstein's non-attendance.

On November 25, the same day Baroni made his presentation, the following exchange occurred between Baroni and Wildstein:

Wildstein: You did great

Baroni: Trenton feedback?

Wildstein: Good

Baroni: Just good? Shit

Wildstein: No I have only texted [Bridget Anne Kelly] and Nicole [Nicole Davidman Drewniak, Finance Director for Christie's 2013 election campaign and wife of Michael Drewniak] they were VERY happy

Wildstein: Both said you are doing great

Wildstein: Charlie said you did GREAT

Wildstein turned over heavily redacted documents in response to the subpoena.

According to e-mails, Wildstein sought advice from Michael Drewniak, Governor Christie's press secretary, with the two meeting in person on December 4. On December 6, Wildstein announced he would resign at the end of the year, saying the response to the traffic lanes closure had become "a distraction".

On December 9, Wisniewski summoned Patrick Foye and career Port Authority staffers to testify under oath about the closure. Robert Durando, George Washington Bridge manager, indicated that he feared retaliation if he did not follow Wildstein's orders to close two toll lanes to local traffic and not notify local officials or the public about these changes. Cedric Fulton, director of tunnels, bridges, and terminals, and Durando stated that they were personally told by Wildstein that he would notify Foye of the change. Foye indicated that he was unaware of any traffic study until he ordered its termination on September 13, and blamed Wildstein for the toll lane changes, while believing Baroni was involved in the planning. When Wildstein called Fulton on September 6 to inform him that the lane closures would begin on September 9, Fulton explained that he thought that was unusual since planning for traffic disruptions on major facilities typically starts years in advance. He stated that he told Wildstein, “This will not end well”, due to expected traffic problems.

Redacted documents were turned over under a subpoena to investigators of the Assembly Transportation Committee and those documents were turned over to The New York Times and other news media. On January 8, 2014, The Star-Ledger, The Record, The New York Times, and other news media published e-mails and text messages tying Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, to the closure. The content of the released communications indicates that the lane closures were ordered with the knowledge that they would cause a massive traffic jam. Christie released a statement later that day denying knowledge of the scandal, rebuking Kelly for her role in the lane closure event, and vowing that "people will be held responsible for their actions" in the affair.

A Republican member of the Assembly committee complained that the Republican members had not been given an adequate amount of time to review the subpoenaed documents in advance of hearing testimony: "Allowing Republican committee members less than 24 hours to review more than 900 pages of information is a disservice to the bipartisan committee process.... As chairman, he [Wisniewski] should be impartial and provide committee members, regardles of their political affiliation, a reasonable opportunity to review documents he has had access to for weeks."

On January 9, 2014, David Wildstein, who appeared with his attorney, Alan Zegas, refused to testify before the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee, invoking the right against self-incrimination in the federal and New Jersey constitutions. The committee voted to hold Wildstein in contempt, asserting that the right against self-incrimination did not apply in such a hearing.

Documents released on January 10, show elaborate efforts by Christie loyalists within the Port Authority and Christie's office and campaign staff to cover up political motives for the Fort Lee lane closures with intimidation threats, efforts to avoid unnecessary publicity, and claims of a traffic study. These loyalists included Baroni, Wildstein, and Port Authority Chairman David Samson, a Christie appointee, and Michael Drewniak, Governor Christie's chief spokesman, Maria Comella, Communication Director, Bridget Kelly, and two-time campaign manager Bill Stepien. E-mails showed the Christie appointees at the Port Authority pursued a relentless campaign of intimidation against those who raised safety concerns about the lane closures. Wildstein called Foye a "piece of crap" in an e-mail to Drewniak. Samson warned that Foye is "playing in traffic, made a big mistake".

State Assemblyman Vincent Prieto, a speaker-elect of the Assembly scheduled to be sworn in as speaker on January 14, announced on January 11 a special session of the Assembly to be held on January 16 to debate reauthorization of the legislative subpoena in order to further the investigation. Preito stated: "The documents released this week related to the George Washington Bridge situation clearly show the need for a continued thorough investigation by the New Jersey General Assembly. Many questions remain unanswered about this threat to public safety and abuse of power." Wisniewski stated that: "I do think laws have been broken. Public resources—the bridge, police officers—all were used for a political purpose, for some type of retribution, and that violates the law." He also raised the issue of the potential for Christie's impeachment if Christie was aware of his aides' actions. In doing so, Wisniewski called it "unbelievable" that Christie did not know anything about his aides' plans, stating: "It's hard to really accept the governor's statement that he knew nothing until the other morning".

Special Legislative Investigative Committees

On January 16, the New Jersey Assembly and Senate each created their own bi-partisan special investigative committees, which would coordinate with each other, to take over the investigation from the Assembly Transportation Committee. The Assembly committee hired Reid Schar as special counsel, who would assist in the investigation. He is a former assistant U.S. attorney from Illinois who assisted in the prosecution of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

The New Jersey Assembly re-authorized the legislative subpoena powers, which were immediately used to subpoena two organizations and 18 individuals (including Christie's appointees and aides listed in the Key Figures table above) in Christie's administration, his 2013 election campaign, and the Port Authority. Those receiving subpoenas were instructed to submit by February 3 all documents and communications, going back to September 1, 2012, related to the reassignment of the two toll lanes during the week of September 9, 2013, and any attempts to conceal the activities or reasons related to that incident. While Christie himself was not subpoenaed, his governor's office and 2013 campaign organization received subpoenas.

On January 21, State Senate majority leader Loretta Weinberg, whose district includes Fort Lee, and deputy speaker of the Assembly, John Wisniewski, announced that the Senate and Assembly committees were being merged into a bi-partisan joint investigative committee of 12 members, and that they would co-chair. For the time being, Wisniewski indicated that the investigation would remain focused solely on the scandal about the toll lane closures. On January 24, the members of the bi-partisan committee were announced. It consisted of eight Assembly representatives, including five Democrats and three Republicans, and four Senators, including three Democrats and one Republican. At the time, 40% of the members of the New Jersey Legislature were Republican. Besides the two Democratic co-chairs, members included Assemblywoman Marlene Caride (D-Bergen), Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris), Senator Nia Gill (D-Essex), Senator Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex), Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald (D-Camden), Assemblywoman Amy Handlin (R-Monmouth), Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle (D-Bergen), Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi (R-Bergen), Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer), and an unnamed Republican Senator. On January 27, both houses voted unanimously to combine the investigations, maintaining the partisan balance, and announced Kevin O'Toole's (R-Essex) inclusion on the committee, despite his mention in one of the emails under review. As a precautionary move, the new investigative committee re-issued subpoenas that had been sent earlier, with the requested records still due on the original deadline, February 3.

In a January 31 letter to the general counsel, Reid Schar, for the joint legislative committee, Kevin Marino, the attorney for Stepien, indicated that he would not submit anything in response to their subpoena and requested its withdrawal, citing his client's Fifth Amendment right and New Jersey common law privileges against self-incrimination, with regard to the criminal inquiry underway by the U.S. Attorney, and Fourth Amendment and New Jersey Constitution (Article I, paragraph 7) rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Wisniewski said the subpoena was perfectly sound, and that Schar would review the attorney’s objections and consider the committee's legal options. Michael Critchley, the attorney for Kelly, submitted a letter that his client would not comply with the subpoena based on similar claims.

On February 3, Wisniewski and Weinberg issued a statement, without details, that some responses to subpoenas had been received and that extensions for submissions had been granted to others. Mark Sheridan, attorney for Christie’s campaign organization, said it had been granted an extension while it awaited an opinion from the state Election Law Enforcement Commission on how it will pay its legal bills.

U.S. Attorney investigation

U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman

On January 9, 2014, Paul J. Fishman, the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, opened a preliminary federal inquiry into matters related to the toll lane closures. Rebekah Carmichael, public affairs officer for the U.S. attorney's office, said in a statement: "The Port Authority Office of Inspector General has referred the matter to us, and our office is reviewing it to determine whether a federal law was implicated." Whether anyone will be federally prosecuted in the scandal is uncertain. Fishman's office has jurisdiction since the Port Authority was created via an interstate compact between New York and New Jersey. The office is also examining allegations that Chris Christie withheld Hurricane Sandy relief funds in Hoboken for political reasons. Hoboken’s Mayor Zimmer said she only received a fraction of the funds for which she applied.

The U.S. Attorney, whose office did not identify who was served, began an official investigation and issued grand jury subpoenas for documents related to the Bridgegate scandal to various people and entities. Mark Sheridan, a partner with Patton Boggs, which had been retained to represent Christie's 2013 re-election campaign organization and the New Jersey Republican State Committee in connection with investigations into this scandal, stated on January 23 that both organizations had received subpoenas.

FBI investigation

Also on January 9, 2014, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a probe into the closures in order to assist the investigation by the U.S. Attorney.

U. S. Senate inquiry

Senator Jay Rockefeller

On January 15, 2014, The (Newark) Star-Ledger reported that the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation had opened its own inquiry into the closure. According to the paper, committee chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) had written Samson and Vice Chairman Scott Rechler in December 2013 to demand answers about how the Port Authority handled the closure and its aftermath. According to his letter, Rockefeller, who has long been critical about shortcomings in the Port Authority's operations, was concerned about what seemed to be evidence of "political appointees abusing their power to hamper interstate commerce and safety without public notice." It also stated that based on a review of recent testimony before the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee, it appeared that there was no traffic study underway. Rockefeller had given the Port Authority until January 15 to submit answers to his committee's questions, and authority spokesman Paul Valens told The Star-Ledger that the authority had complied. Rockefeller also asked the United States Department of Transportation to conduct its own review of the incident.

The Port Authority's written response to Rockefeller's questions, signed by board secretary Karen Eastman, restated and summarized the December 9, 2013, testimony by Patrick Foye and two other Port Authority managers before the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee. It indicated that the closures had been ordered by Wildstein on September 6 despite various Port Authority engineers expressing their concerns, particularly about more traffic congestion on local streets and no advance notice to Fort Lee officials. Wildstein, the letter said, had ordered bridge officials not to notify Foye of the closures. It also revealed that the Port Authority's board had not approved Baroni's earlier presentation on November 25 before that committee that the closures were part of a traffic study. It showed that Port Authority's procedures for planning and internal notifications for any traffic study were not followed. However, the letter did not reveal any reason why the closures were ordered. It characterized the incident as "aberrational." Rockefeller declared that based on the Port Authority's response, there was "zero evidence" that a "legitimate" traffic study had been planned. He also said that the letter revealed the Port Authority had not followed its own procedures for lane closures.

Legal representation for key figures

Person or Entity	Legal Representatives	Notes and Key Credentials
Port Authority
Bill Baroni	Michael B. Himmel, a partner at the New York and Roseland, New Jersey offices of Lowenstein Sandler	Himmel was the attorney for Solomon Dwek, who also worked as an informant in Operation Bid Rig III that brought down several New Jersey politicians
David Samson	Michael Chertoff, "senior of counsel" at the Washington, D.C. law firm Covington & Burling; Angelo J. Genova, senior partner, chairman, and co-founder of the Newark law firm Genova Burns Giantomasi Webster	Chertoff is a former U.S. Attorney of New Jersey (like Christie) and former Secretary of Homeland Security; Chertoff's consulting firm, The Chertoff Group, received a no-bid contract from the Port Authority to review its security and provided recommendations; Genova had served on the Port Authority's Board of Commissioners
David Wildstein	Alan L. Zegas, a criminal defense attorney, part of the small Chatham, New Jersey-based Law Offices of Alan L. Zegas
Office of the Governor
Christie's Office of the Governor	Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, including partner Randy M. Mastro, based in the firm's New York office	Hired in January 2014, after disclosure of subpoenaed documents from the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee, in order to aid in an internal investigation for the governor's office and respond to "appropriate" official inquiries
Bridget Anne Kelly	Michael Critchley, Sr., founder of the Roseland, New Jersey-based firm Critchley, Kinum & Vazquez	Replaced Walter F. Timpone, who cited a conflict of interest since he was serving as Christie's appointed vice-chairman of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission; Critchley broke an eight-year streak of successful political corruption convictions by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey when Ridgefield Mayor Anthony R. Suarez was found not guilty in 2010 of charges that he accepted a bribe
Bill Stepien	Kevin Marino, a principal and founder of Chatham, New Jersey-based Marino, Tortorella & Boyle
Other Organizations
Christie's 2013 re-election campaign	Patton Boggs, including partner Mark D. Sheridan, based at the firm's Newark office	Official name for re-election campaign was Chris Christie for Governor Inc.
New Jersey Republican State Committee	Patton Boggs, including partner Mark D. Sheridan	Patton Boggs also serves as general counsel for the Republican State Committee

David Wildstein

On January 24, the Port Authority told Wildstein that they will not pay his legal bills since they contended the bills would not be covered according to its bylaws when there was fraud, malice, misconduct, or intentional wrongdoing. In a January 31 letter, his attorney, Alan Zegas, asked the Port Authority to reconsider paying Wildstein's legal bills since they had provided no specific reasons or evidence in regards to their contention. He also questioned their decision since the Port Authority was still reviewing whether to pay the legal bills of Bill Baroni, who had made statements during his November 25 hearing with the Assembly Transportation Committee that were contradicted by sworn testimony by Patrick Foye and other Port Authority officials at a December 9 hearing. The letter also raised questions about the accuracy of various statements by Christie about Wildstein and when Christie became aware of the lane closures.

Lawsuits

In most cases of government action causing traffic delays, lawsuits would not be possible. Under the concept of government immunity, governments are usually immune to lawsuits for their actions. However, such restrictions only apply to actions done in good faith, while the e-mails demonstrating the closure was intentional clearly showed bad faith. Secondly, under tort law, generally one can sue for personal injury or property damage, but not for economic loss, as many parties only tangentially related to a case could legitimately claim such losses. However, this restriction usually only applies to negligence, and does not apply if the plaintiff could show that the defendant knew that severe traffic jams would occur. New Jersey is also more open to economic loss claims than other states. Lawsuits related to the closures could be in the court system for years.

On January 9, 2014, Fort Lee attorney Rosemarie Arnold filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, on behalf of six Bergen County residents, claiming that they were stuck in traffic, arrived late for work, lost pay, and in one case suffered a panic attack in connection with the traffic jams caused by the lane closures. The lawsuit alleges that the lane closures were the result of a civil conspiracy and "willful, wanton, arbitrary, and egregious official misconduct" by Christie, Kelly, Wildstein, and Baroni, who are named as defendants in the lawsuit. The Port Authority and State of New Jersey were also named as defendants. The plaintiffs are seeking certification as a class action.

On January 13, six Bergen County taxicab companies filed a class action lawsuit in New Jersey Superior Court in Hackensack, claiming they lost money based on lost time and extra gas consumption, and suffered emotional harm since their cabs were stuck in traffic for more than two hours due to the toll lane closures. The lawsuit names Christie staff members, Bridget Kelly and Michael Drewniak, Port Authority managers, David Wildstein and Bill Baroni, and Christie's gubernatorial campaign, along with his campaign manager, Bill Stepien.

Christie's responses

Christie's public statements, and those made by the governor's office on his behalf, on the toll lane closures have been made as more information about the scandal became public.

December 2, 2013

At a press conference, Governor Christie said that Democrats were just playing politics by holding hearings into lane closures. "Just because [Rep.] John Wisniewski [D-Middlesex] is obsessed with this, and [Sen.] Loretta Weinberg, it just shows that they really have nothing to do," Christie said. Christie later credited the e-mail documents subpoenaed by the hearings as the first information he had that his staff was involved. When asked about the closure, Christie dismissively joked "I worked the cones, actually. Unbeknownst to everybody I was actually the guy out there, in overalls and a hat. You cannot be serious with that question."

Christie defended Baroni's claim of a traffic study, saying, "I do believe, and I told Chairman Samson this, that we should look at this policy because I don't know why one town gets three lanes. One lane? Maybe. Three lanes, for one town, I don't quite get it."

Mr. Christie, a Republican, complained in a private phone call to Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, that Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was pressing too hard to get to the bottom of why the number of toll lanes onto the bridge from Fort Lee, N.J. was cut from three to one in early September, according to this person.

The Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2013

Purported call to Governor Cuomo of New York

On December 12, 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported that Christie was said to have called New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to complain about Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and a Cuomo appointee, in an apparent attempt to shut down Foye's investigation of the lane closures. On December 13, 2013, Christie denied such a call, saying, "The story is categorically wrong. I did not have that conversation with Governor Cuomo in any way, shape or form." In his January 9, 2014 press conference, he also denied any such conversation.

December 13

At a press conference, Christie announced the immediate resignations of Baroni and Wildstein. Nevertheless, Christie stated the closure was "absolutely, unequivocally not" political retribution.

Christie added: "I've made it very clear to everybody on my senior staff that if anyone had any knowledge about this, they needed to come forward to me and tell me about it. And they've all assured me that they don't." Christie reported: "The chief of staff and chief counsel assured me they feel comfortable that we have all the information we need to have."

Governor Christie suggested that reviewing the policy for three toll lanes for Fort Lee with the related lane closures was a matter of fairness when he said, "I didn't know Fort Lee got three dedicated lanes until all this stuff happened, and I think we should review that entire policy because I don't know why Fort Lee needs three dedicated lanes to tell you the truth." However, members of the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee indicated at their November 25, 2013, hearing that the Fort Lee entrance has been used by an even greater number of commuters from the surrounding Bergen County towns. Port Authority officials, including Patrick Foye, confirmed that assessment in their sworn testimony at the December 9, 2013, committee hearing.

January 9, 2014

Christie apologized at a nearly two-hour press conference for the lane closure and said that he was "embarrassed and humiliated" by the behavior of his staff. Christie claimed he first learned of his staff's involvement via news media reports on January 8. The governor announced that he had fired Bridget Kelly, calling her "stupid" and "deceitful" and claimed that her lack of disclosure about her actions and emails caused him to mislead the public. Christie admonished his two-time campaign manager Bill Stepien and said he had asked Stepien to withdraw his name from the Republican State Party Chairman race, and to cease his consulting role for the Republican Governors Association. Christie promised that he and his staff would cooperate with any government investigations, including those by the New Jersey Legislature. When asked what he would do if subpoenaed to testify on the matter, Christie said, "I'm not going to speculate on that."

In the press conference, Christie described his earlier investigations into whether his staff were involved, saying "I brought my senior staff together I think about four weeks ago tomorrow. And I put to all of them one simple challenge: If there is any information that you know about the decision to close these lanes in Fort Lee, you have one hour to tell either my chief of staff, Kevin O'Dowd, or my chief counsel, Charlie McKenna."

January 16

Christie announced that New York attorney Randy Mastro was hired. Mastro was described by The New York Times as an associate of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, having served as his Assistant United States Attorney, and then his Deputy Mayor of New York City. Port Authority lawyers lodged a complaint with the law firm that there would be a potential conflict. The firm and Mastro have represented the Port Authority in ongoing disputes over the 2011 toll increases, which has been investigated by Wisniewski, who has subpoenaed their financial records in the past and as part of the Bridgegate scandal. A firm's spokesperson denied that there would be any conflicts. A retention letter, signed by New Jersey Assistant Attorney General Robert T. Lougy, indicated that the governor's office and law firm did not consider there to be any conflicts. The final released agreement, signed on January 30, indicated that Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Mastro, who is head of litigation in their New York office, would aid in an internal investigation by the governor's office into the matter; assist it “with document retention and production in connection with the United States Attorney inquiry, and other appropriate inquires and requests for information”; and review its operations and information flow. The agreement did not mention whether the firm would personally represent any of the office’s staff, including those who have received subpoenas.

January 31

The governor's office issued a statement that denied the allegations about Christie that were contained in a January 31 letter, which was made public, from Alan Zegas, Wildstein's attorney, to the Port Authority. The letter questioned the accuracy of various statements made by Christie about his client, without providing any specific references, and claimed that there is evidence of Christie being aware of the toll lane closures at the time that they were closed. The governor's office stated that Christie stood by his position that he: "first learned lanes were closed when it was reported by the press". Christie previously stated in his December 13 press conference that this was well after the toll lanes for local traffic were reopened.

February 3

During his monthly talk radio appearance, Christie said he was cooperating with subpoenas from the state legislative committee and the U.S. Attorney to his governor's office, which began turning over documents to the legislative committee earlier in the day and would continue to do so as the requested items were located.

Reactions and impact

As of January 2014, there is a wide range of opinion about the impact of this scandal on a potential Christie presidential bid. A Rasmussen poll published January 10, 2014, showed that 56% believe Christie should resign "if it is proven that he approved of retaliation against an elected official who refused to support him"; only 29% disagreed. A majority reported they believed it was at least somewhat likely that Christie was aware, at the time, that the September toll lane closures were retaliation for the mayor of Fort Lee's refusal to support the governor's re-election.

A Quinnipiac poll, published January 21, showed that the Fort Lee scandal had hurt Christie's national standings, including his potential run for the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election. The poll showed him trailing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 46% to 38%, which is a downturn from two previous polls that showed Christie and Clinton about even, after Christie had gained considerably in the polls against her since March 2013. The December 2013 poll had shown Christie at 42% with Clinton, who is the leading potential Democrat candidate, at 41%. Nationally, peoples' view of his presidential capabilities had gone down with 35% agreeing and 36% disagreeing that he would make a good president. This was down from 49% agreeing to 31% disagreeing in a November poll. For the people, who had heard of the Bridgegate scandal, 50% indicated this scandal would hurt Christie's presidential hopes, and made 34% of all those polled less likely to vote for Christie. His favorability rating declined to only 33% viewing him generally as favorable with 30% unfavorable. This is down from his highest rating of 47% favorable to 23% unfavorable in December 2013. However, the poll did show that Christie still polled the best against Clinton among the current leading potential Republican candidates, even though he had gone from the leading potential Republican candidate in December to a statistical tie with three others.

A Rutgers-Eagleton poll, published January 24, showed that the Fort Lee scandal had hurt his standings among New Jersey residents. Christie’s favorability rating, as governor, was shown to be 46%, down 22 points from just before his landslide re-election victory in November 2013, with 43% having an unfavorable view. While the majority of residents still approve his overall performance as governor, his 53% job approval was down 15 points from November. A majority, 56%, indicated that it was “very unlikely” or "somewhat unlikely" that Christie’s top aides acted without his knowledge in the Fort Lee scandal. Only 20% said they fully believed Christie’s explanation about this topic, while 42% did not believe his version at all and 33% only partially believed him.

Sokolich, a perceived target of the closures, told the New York Daily News on January 8 that he was appalled: "How low can you go? This is insane. It's the worst example of a petty political vendetta ... I'm embarrassed. And congratulations, you've just made New Jersey the brunt of every political joke for the next 25 years — again."

Barbara Buono stated that the incident may shed light on why it was so hard for Democrats to run against Christie in a state reckoned as part of the solid bloc of blue states in the Northeast. The state has gone Democratic in every presidential election since 1992, and Democrats have controlled both houses of the state legislature for more than a decade. She observed that the culture of intimidation and retribution engendered by Christie and his staff made people unwilling to donate to a competing campaign at a level where their name would be made public, stating that "I was relegated to raising money in $300 increments" because political contributions over that amount must be made public under New Jersey campaign finance law.

The New Jersey Working Families Alliance, a New Jersey grassroots group, stated that it had collected over 20,000 signatures on a petition calling for Christie to resign, including 6,500 from New Jersey residents. The College Democrats of America responded to the scandal by releasing a statement from one of its New Jersey officers concluding "Governor Christie’s leadership is why this happened, and this shows he is not fit to hold office today in New Jersey, or nationally in 2016."

On February 1, 2014, Governor Christie was booed by some in a crowd at Times Square during the ceremonial 'handing off' of the Super Bowl to Arizona, next year's host state.

Speculation of motives

The Modern high-rise residential building under construction at the Hudson Lights redevelopment area. Looking east from George Washington Bridge Plaza.

The motives for these actions are unclear, but are believed to be a form of political retribution against Christie's opponents.

Widely held speculation is that the target of these actions by Governor Christie's staff and his political appointees at the Port Authority is Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for not supporting Christie, a Republican, in the 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election. Though the two men are from different parties and an endorsement would normally not be expected, Governor Christie ran on a platform of bipartisanship and had secured the endorsement of many other Democratic officials. However, Mayor Sokolich claims he was only asked for an endorsement once, during Spring 2013, months before the August 13 order for traffic problems from Christie's Deputy Chief of Staff.

Hudson Lights, a "billion dollar redevelopment" project being promoted by Mayor Sokolich, might be involved as a target of the political retribution. It has been noted that "the Hudson Lights project is a billion dollar project because it offers unparalleled access to the George Washington Bridge. But take away that access and it's no longer a billion dollar project." In a September 12, 2013, e-mail to Bill Baroni, during the time when the closure was still on-going, Mayor Sokolich raised concerns about the redevelopment project, asking "What do I do when our billion dollar development is put on line at the end of next year?"

E-mails by Christie-appointees indicate they were aware the closures would harm Sokolich. In an e-mail from David Wildstein responding to Bill Stepien, Wildstein stated "It will be a tough November for this little Serbian," derogatorily referring to Sokolich, who is Croatian-American. Bill Baroni also referred to "Serbia" in text messages in another apparent reference to mayor Sokolich.

Another hypothesis is that the target could have been New Jersey Senate majority leader, Loretta Weinberg, who represents the New Jersey district containing Fort Lee, as retribution for the Democrats' intentions to block Christie's reappointment of a New Jersey Supreme Court justice. Christie withdrew his reappointment consideration for Helen E. Hoens, a Republican, while referring to New Jersey Senate Democrats as "animals" on August 12, 2013, one day before Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, sent an e-mail to Wildstein in which she initiated plans to cause traffic congestion in Fort Lee. However, Weinberg's name has not been mentioned in any released documents as part of the ongoing investigations.

Timeline

2013

• Week of August 4: Port Authority Chairman David Samson met with Governor Christie
  • (Investigations need to determine if and how any part of this meeting was related to the scandal since subsequent subpoenaed documents submitted by Wildstein made reference to it)
• August 13: Bridget Anne Kelly e-mailed David Wildstein: "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee"; Wildstein replied: "Got it"
• August 28: Wildstein received e-mail from Peter Zipf, Port Authority chief engineer, for scenario for reducing toll lanes from three to two for local traffic from Fort Lee and surrounding communities
• August 29: Per Wildstein's request, he received e-mail (with copy to Zipf) from Jose M. Rivera, Port Authority chief traffic engineer, for scenario for reducing toll lanes from three to one for that local traffic
• September 6: Wildstein e-mailed Kelly, "ready to do this", and instructed Port Authority personnel to implement toll lane closures for September 9
• September 9: Two of three toll lanes are closed to traffic at a Fort Lee entrance and shifted to main highway traffic; daily massive traffic jams in Fort Lee began to occur during the rush hours and extended well beyond those times
  • The first of many inquiries by Mayor Mark Sokolich and other Fort Lee officials to Port Authority managers, including Bill Baroni, and spokespersons go unanswered during the week
• September 10: Response to Wildstein in redacted text message: "Is it wrong that I'm smiling"; response to this question: "No"
• September 11: During the third day of the closures, Christie, Wildstein, Samson and Baroni are photographed together at the site of the World Trade Center during a commemoration of the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
• September 13: Patrick Foye's e-mail ordered toll lanes re-opened at the local entrance and indicated that he would find out how this "abusive decision" was made; Baroni forwarded this e-mail to Regina Egea, Christie's Director of the Authorities Unit
  • Port Authority spokesman released an explanation that the lane closures were part of a week-long study to review traffic safety patterns
  • Baroni e-mailed Samson: "General, can I call you on this now?"
  • Wildstein e-mailed Kelly: "We are appropriately going nuts. Samson helping us to retaliate."
• September 17: Wall Street Journal reported on some of the key contents and accusations contained in Foye's September 13 e-mail
• September 18: Samson's e-mail to Port Authority Vice Chairman, Scott H. Rechler, criticizing Foye: "he's playing in traffic, made a big mistake"
  • Wildstein sent a communication, along with the Wall Street Journal story, to Christie's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who responded, "It's fine. The mayor is an idiot, though", referring to Sokolich
• October 1: Wall Street Journal broke the story that toll lanes may have been closed by Port Authority political "surrogates" of Governor Christie, a Republican, as an alleged act of political retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat
• October 2: Wildstein wrote to Stepien that leaks by Foye needed to be addressed
• November 5: Christie re-elected
• November 25: Baroni, who was not sworn in, made a presentation before the Assembly Transportation Committee that included his claim that the lanes closures were part of a traffic study
  • Wildstein to Baroni: "Charlie [purportedly Charlie McKenna, Chief Counsel to Governor Christie] said you did GREAT"
• December 4: Meeting between Wildstein and Michael Drewniak, Governor Christie's press secretary
• December 6: Wildstein announced he would resign at the end of the year
• December 9: Foye testified under oath before Assembly Transportation Committee that he was not aware of any traffic study ordered by Wildstein, with probable supervision by Baroni
  • Two other Port Authority managers testified that Wildstein ordered the lane closures for a traffic study, which they thought did not follow Port Authority planning protocols, and instructed them not to inform local officials and the public
• December 10: The Port Authority's inspector general started an investigation
• December 12: Wall Street Journal reported that Christie had called Governor Cuomo about Foye and the closure investigation
• December 13: Christie announced the immediate resignations of Baroni and Wildstein; Christie denied speaking with Cuomo about Foye and the closure investigation

2014

• January 8: Major break in the scandal when e-mails and texts are released in the news media showing that the closure of toll lanes for local traffic was a conspiracy to harm Fort Lee and avoid public disclosure of the reasons
  • Christie withdrew his selection of Bill Stepien to head New Jersey GOP
• January 9: Christie held a press conference and indicated that he first learned on January 8 of his staff's involvement via media news reports, including published communications from his staff
  • At the press conference, Christie stated: "we'll work cooperatively with the investigations"; he announced that Kelly had been fired earlier in the day for lying about having no involvement or direct knowledge, without him asking her about her actions, since he had seen her published e-mails in the news that were related to the toll lane closures
  • When appearing before the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee, Wildstein refused to testify, while invoking his right against self-incrimination
    • The committee voted to hold Wildstein in contempt; it referred these charges on January 13 to the Mercer County prosecutor's office for review
  • United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey opened a preliminary federal inquiry into matters related to the toll lane closures
• January 10: The Assembly Transportation Committee publicly released all subpoenaed documents
  • (There was no evidence that additional administration officials, beyond those already mentioned, had advance knowledge of the toll lane closure plan, but showed that top aides to Christie were aware early on of related issues and their importance for avoiding further disclosures)
• January 11: John Wisniewski stated that he did not rule out possible impeachment of Christie, but only if there was a direct link between the governor and the September lane closures
• January 14: Christie pledged to "cooperate with all appropriate inquiries to ensure this breach of trust does not happen again" at the State of the State address
  • In response to Christie's statement, Wisniewski, who was leading the Assembly inquiry, expressed concern that Christie was limiting the meaning of his previously announced cooperation, and stated: "I'm hoping he's not parsing his words in some way."
  • On Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Fallon and Christie hero Bruce Springsteen, both dressed as Springsteen from the 1980s, performed a parody of "Born to Run", reworded to describe the scandal. The official YouTube clip received over a million hits in less than 19 hours.
• January 16: A special session of the New Jersey Assembly re-authorized the legislative subpoena powers and created a bi-partisan investigative committee, chaired by Wisniewski, to continue the investigation
  • Assembly committee issued subpoenas to 18 people in Christie's administration, his 2013 re-election campaign, and the Port Authority, with requested submittals by February 3
    • While Christie himself was not subpoenaed, his governor's office and 2013 election campaign organization received subpoenas
  • Christie announced his office hired New York attorney Randy Mastro, a long time associate of Rudy Guliani, who is a friend to Christie, to aid in an internal investigation of the matter
    • (A final released agreement, signed on January 30, provided details concerning representation for the governor's office by Mastro and his firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher)
• January 23: A lawyer for Christie's 2013 re-election campaign and the New Jersey Republican State Committee announced both organizations received the first-known grand jury subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey for documents related to the lane closures
• January 27: New Jersey Legislature voted to create a joint bi-partisan investigative committee (with co-chairs, Assembly Deputy Speaker John Wisniewski and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg) comprising eight Assembly representatives (five Democrats and three Republican), and four Senators (three Democrats and one Republican)
• January 29: The New York Times published an exposé about Christie's “intergovernmental affairs” operation, part of an ongoing campaign to influence mayors for their political support and also have an impact on 2013 election results for Christie as governor in certain New Jersey towns
  • (Officials in the governor's office maintained dossiers, which were originally created by Stepien when he was Deputy Chief of Staff and regularly reviewed by Christie, on the "Top 100" list of mayors and what state government resources could be used to support and influence them; the newspaper did not identify municipalities on the list)
• January 31: Letter from Wildstein's attorney to the Port Authority questioned the accuracy of statements made by the governor about his client and claimed there is evidence of Christie being aware of the toll lane closures at the time that they were closed. The governor's office issued a statement that denied the allegations
• February 3: Legislative investigative panel announced, without details, that some responses to subpoenas had been received and that extensions for submissions had been granted to others
  • Attorneys for Stepien and Kelly had indicated they would not comply with the subpoenas, citing their clients' Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure

See also

• List of scandals with "-gate" suffix

External links

• Documents released by New Jersey Legislature
• Transcript of Christie's January 9, 2014, press conference