It Seems Like Everybody Agrees The Wrong People Are On Trial For Bridgegate
Why the heck isn't Chris Christie sitting at the defendant's table?
Does this woman look like Chris Christie to you? No? Then whey the hell is she on trial?
The New Jersey Governor and Trump manservant, Chris Christie, has long maintained that he knew nothing about the lane closures on the George Washington bridge designed to cause traffic problems for Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich. It’s a classic political calculus where a powerful person would rather look like an absentee fool instead of a person who is fully in command of his own people.
Today is the first day of the “Bridgegate” trial of Bridget Anne Kelly, a Christie aide, and Bill Baroni, Christie’s top appointment at the Port Authority. We knew that the defense would implicate Chris Christie: the “just following orders” defense is pretty much the only one open to them, as there are damaging emails and texts showing these two (along with David Wildstein, conspirator turned prosecution witness) making jokes about the problems they were causing in Fort Lee.
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We didn’t know that the prosecution would also implicate the Governor. But right from their opening statements, the prosecution alleged that Christie knew exactly what was going on. From the Daily News:
N.J. Gov. Chris Christie knew about the scheme to close down lanes of the George Washington Bridge on the third day of gridlock in Fort Lee, prosecutors said Monday in opening arguments of the Bridgegate trial.
In opening statements in Newark Federal Court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna said that former Port Authority official David Wildstein would testify that he and Bill Baroni — the Authority’s top New Jersey official — “bragged” to Christie about the traffic trouble during a 9/11 memorial anniversary in 2013. They also boasted that Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich wasn’t getting his calls returned as he struggled to figure out the cause of the gridlock that lasted four days.
If Wildstein says he knew, and Baroni and Kelly say he knew, and the prosecutors believe that he knew… then why the heck isn’t Chris Christie sitting at the defendant’s table? Did Christie need to personally place some orange cones on the GW to make this case stick?
In the alternative, if you don’t have enough evidence to nail Christie, but you are pretty sure this whole thing goes down with Christie’s explicit or tacit approval, why are Kelly and Baroni taking the fall for this at all? Prosecutorial discretion should not mean “if you can’t get the king, scapegoat the jesters so you don’t look bad.”
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I mean, look at this dodge, according to the New York Times:
The prosecutor, Vikas Khanna, instantly advised the jury that they should not consider the actions of “others” or wonder why they were not charged.
Are you kidding me with that? What the hell kind of show do prosecutors think they’re putting on? The only interesting question involves the actions of “others who were not charged.” We all know what happened. We all know it happened as an act of political retribution. The only relevant truth is whether or not it happened at the direction of the Governor of New Jersey, or not.
How in the hell can it be that everybody agrees that Chris Christie knew, except Chris Christie, and somehow that’s not the point?
Justice might be blind, but she looks like a damn fool when she sticks her head in the sand.
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Former Christie allies on trial for Bridgegate scandal ‘bragged’ to N.J. governor about traffic in Fort Lee, prosecution says [New York Daily News]
Chris Christie Knew About Bridge Lane Closings as They Happened, Prosecutors Say [New York Times]
Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He assumes that 75 percent of the traffic in the greater New York area is the result of one politician getting back at another one.
