Time for some Christie troubles in the Bridegegate trial. Cameras are not allowed in federal court, but NJTV News Correspondent David Cruz was there.
Cruz: It was the most anticipated testimony of the six-week trial and for sheer drama, Bridget Kelly delivered.
Answering questions from her attorney, Michael Critchley, she was self-assured and confident and weepy and sad, often in the same sentence.
The headline? Chris Christie was a profane and violent bully who held a grudge and made opponents pay. Also, he knew there was a traffic study coming a month before it happened.
Kelly recounted an encounter with Christie before a meeting with business people affected by the Seaside Heights fire in September of 2013. It was Kelly’s job to prep the governor beforehand.
After suggesting the governor introduce his cabinet and let them speak, Kelly testified that the governor was enraged.
Fighting back tears, she recounted: “He said, ‘What do you think I am, an f—ing game show host?’ He had a water bottle in his hand and he threw it,” she said. “I moved out of the way, but it hit my arm.”
Critchley: “You were afraid of the governor?”
“Yes,” she said.
Critchley says, “He’s a big tough guy, huh?”
“Yes,” she replied.
Kelly also recounted setting up a series of meetings between the members of the governor’s cabinet and then mayor-elect Steve Fulop of Jersey City. This is June of 2013. Within a month, Kelly testified she got a call from Kevin O’Dowd — then chief of staff to the governor — instructing her to cancel those meetings.
She said she was personally embarrassed but did as she was told, instructing each of the seven cabinet members to cancel those meetings individually, per O’Dowd’s direction.
The following day the governor swept into his office.
Critchley asked Kelly if he said anything to her.
“He asked if the meetings had been canceled. I said, ‘Yes, governor.'”
Critchley asked, “What did he say to that?”
Kelly said, “He said, ‘No one’s entitled to an f—ing meeting.'”
Critchley: “What do you think he meant by that?”
“I knew he didn’t want anyone meeting with Fulop and I didn’t know why and I didn’t ask,” she said, again choking up.
Critchley spent a good part of the day walking his client through a description of her role in the administration. Remember, he contended all along that she was just a small fish in a sea of sharks.
Kelly said she first heard about a traffic study from David Wildstein back in 2011.
It was in June of 2013 that he finally told her he would be conducting the study in September, and that Kelly should alert the governor because the study would result in “traffic problems” in Fort Lee.
Kelly says she finally got around to telling the governor about it in August and he said it was OK with him.
As for the infamous “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” email, Kelly said those were not her words.
“I sent off a text message parroting exactly what David told me: There’s going to be ‘traffic problems in Fort Lee.’ Exactly what I told the governor. I chose words that he [that is to say Wildstein] had used with me many times. If I had not used those words we would not know each other today,” she said, referring to her attorney.
Kelly made a sympathetic witness today. She seemed to have held the jury’s attention, which in this case is no small feat.
Her testimony with Critchley will continue on Monday.