Christie appointee watched bridge closure in person, documents show

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/10/22257330-christie-appointee-watched-bridge-closure-in-person-documents-show?lite

By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
Jan. 11, 2014

An appointee of Gov. Chris Christie personally showed up to observe the closure of lanes at the George Washington Bridge that triggered an epic traffic jam in New Jersey in September, according to documents made public Friday.

The appointee, David Wildstein, emailed the general manager of the bridge on the day before the lanes were closed to say, “Will be at bridge early Monday am to view new lane test,” the documents show. Other emails show that he arrived by 7 a.m. on Sept. 9, the first of four days of nightmare traffic in the city of Fort Lee.

The documents also show that Wildstein and Bill Baroni, another Christie appointee, were directly told on the first day that the backups were causing problems for police and paramedics. Lane closures at the bridge continued for four days, until the irate head of the Port Authority, which controls the bridge, ordered them reopened.

The matter exploded this week into the biggest scandal of Christie’s career after emails and texts appeared to show that Christie allies ordered the lanes closed as an act of political payback.

The documents were released by a committee of lawmakers looking into why the lanes were closed. Some of the information has been reported in news accounts, but the documents — more than 2,000 pages in all — paint a picture of Christie allies pushing forward with the closings and later trying to keep information from the public.

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