Two of Gov. Chris Christie’s former allies were in federal court today as part of pretrial preparation in the GW Bridge lane-closing case. Attorneys for Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni — who face trial in the fall on charges they conspired to close lanes creating that infamous traffic jam — subpoenaed access to the governor’s cellphone. NJTV News Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron was there and discussed what happened with Correspondent Briana Vannozzi.
Vannozzi: Michael, raucous courtroom today? What happened?
Aron: There was a shark fight today. It didn’t involve the federal prosecutors. They just sat idly by while the law firm for Gov. Christie and the governor’s office, Gibson Dunn, fought with the defense attorneys for Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni. At issue is the request by the defense for hundreds of thousands of more documents, dozens more cellphones, laptops, iPads. The judge decided that the defense attorneys are not entitled to those. Among the things that the defense wants is Gov. Christie’s cellphone, the mysterious cellphone that nobody seems to know where it is, the one which he exchanged texts with his deputy chief of staff Regina Egea during a sensitive Bridgegate hearing in the Legislature. So that’s not going to have to be produced.
Vannozzi: So what was this? Just some preliminary squabbling?
Aron: Before the hearing we asked Michael Critchley, Bridget Kelly’s attorney, one of the top criminal defense attorneys in the state, what’s this about today? He said, well in boxing terms, this is about body blows, not knockouts, he said. But body blows can eventually become a knockout. After the hearing we put a similar question to Bill Baroni’s attorney, Michael Baldassare:
Aron: Did you suffer some body blows?
Baldassare: Uh, no. Because I think that people said the same things that they always say about defense attorneys. So it was nothing new there. What is new was the law firm hired by the governor getting $10 million and not having his phone, not knowing where his phone is, forgetting to check certain emails, taking people at their word as to whether or not they ever used an email. To me, that’s new and those were body blows for Gibson Dunn. As for us, I haven’t heard anything today that I haven’t heard somebody say about a defense attorney in the last 15 trials.
Vannozzi: So, would you call this a victory for Gibson Dunn here?
Aron: Yeah, this was a significant victory for Gibson Dunn. Gibson Dunn argued before the judge that the defense was engaged in a fishing expedition. They said we’ve reviewed hundreds of thousands of documents, we’ve turned over 25,000 or 30,000 to the federal government. You’ve gotten that but you’re not entitled to more. Everything relevant has been turned over. To which Michael Critchley replied, no. …
Vannozzi: Is that the end of the cellphone then?
Aron: The cellphone is protected as of now, but Randy Mastro of Gibson Dunn said of the defense, “They tried to shoot the moon and go for everything under the sun.” Michael Critchley replied, “It’s not that Gibson Dunn didn’t give us enough documents. It’s that they didn’t give us the right ones.”
Vannozzi: How did Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly’s attorneys take this defeat?
Aron: They were nonplussed. They seem eager to go. They previewed a little bit of their argument, at least Critchley did in the matter of Bridget Kelly. He pointed to her at one point in court and said you can’t imagine that this woman, by herself, orchestrated this whole thing. I think that’s going to come up. Also, the judge gave us her reasoning, that the defense filed this subpoena late and that it’s too massive and she seems to want to get the trial going. Right now it’s scheduled to start on Sept. 12.
Vannozzi: That was one of the arguments all along. Michael Aron, chief political correspondent. Thank you for keeping an eye on this today.
Aron: Thanks, Briana.