Christie's Own Bridgegate Report: Wildstein Says He Told Christie About Lane Closures On 9/11

It's still he said/he said, but it's one more step closer to ruin for Chris Christie:

The Port Authority official who oversaw the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge said that he had informed Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey about it at a Sept. 11 memorial while the closings were occurring, according to an internal investigation released on Thursday by lawyers for the governor.

 

The official, David Wildstein, told Mr. Christie’s press secretary of the Sept. 11 conversation at a dinner in December just before his resignation from the Port Authority, according to the report. 

The report said that Mr. Christie did not recall any such conversation and finds no evidence that he was involved in the scheme, which snarled traffic for thousands of commuters in Fort Lee, N.J., from Sept. 9 through the morning of Sept. 12.

 

It was one of many revelations unearthed by the inquiry, commissioned by Mr. Christie’s office. into what prompted the lane closings and what role his administration played in it.

 

The report puts much of the blame for the closings on Bridget Anne Kelly, who was Mr. Christie’s deputy chief of staff until he fired her in January, and on Mr. Wildstein, a longtime Christie ally.

 

This is Christie's own internal report and it's supposed to exonerate him, but the Wildstein claim in it raises more questions and in the end, that's really the takeaway from it.

 

They're trying to hang this mess on Wildstein and Kelly, but something tells me it's not going to work out the way Christie and his remaining staff want it to.

Christie says this report exonerates him of culpability in Bridgegate.

But it doesn't come close to doing that:

The report was commissioned by Mr. Christie’s office in the days after the scandal erupted and was carried out by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, a corporate law firm known for its aggressive white-collar defense work. 

Over the past two months, the firm interviewed more than 70 individuals, including Mr. Christie, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and every member of the governor’s senior staff. They also interviewed the New Jersey staff of the Port Authority, which controls the bridge. They reviewed the personal and work email accounts of key administration officials. And they obtained the private and government phone records for Mr. Christie and his top aides. 

But the lawyers encountered a glaring obstacle that raises questions about its thoroughness: The three people at the center of the lane closings, according to emails made public by the State Legislature, refused to cooperate. Ms. Kelly, Mr. l Stepien and Mr. Wildstein, declined requests to meet with Gibson Dunn lawyers.

And so all this internal Christie report is raise more questions about what Christie knew, when he knew it and if he lied about it during that Springsteen-length press conference he gave back in January.