The Port Authority’s top official admitted to lying Wednesday during the Bridgegate scandal, while defense lawyers accused him of using the scandal for political gain.
Pat Foye, the executive director of the bi-state Port Authority, testified that he approved a statement to the press — crafted by two former P.A. officials, Bill Baroni and David Wildstein — that explained the four days of gridlock in Fort Lee, New Jersey, were the result of a traffic study that had concluded.
“I was skeptical. I didn’t believe it to be true,” Foye said of the statement released the day he restored the normal traffic flow.
“I saw this as Bill Baroni’s mess, David Wildstein’s mess. I was OK with it going out,” added Foye, who answers to Gov. Cuomo.
Baroni, along with Bridget Kelly, a former aide to Chris Christie, is on trial for the lane closures.
Prosecutors say the shutdown was an act of political revenge directed at the mayor of Fort Lee for refusing to endorse Christie’s reelection. Wildstein has pleaded guilty in the case and is expected to testify against Baroni and Kelly.
Foye faced withering questioning about why he’d allowed the false statement to be released.
“You, as the executive director, (are) allowing that false impression to be created?” Kelly attorney Michael Critchley asked.
“It was not true,” Foye replied.
“Giving false statements to the public, is that in the public interest?” Critchley asked.
Foye replied that the lie was “immaterial” because he’d served the public good by ordering two of three lanes from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge be reopened.
“Lies are immaterial?” Critchley barked.
Both Critchley and Baroni’s attorney Michael Baldassare also accused Foye of lying about when he learned of the closures.
“You let it continue so you could swoop in … and act like the hero? Isn’t that what happened?” Baldassare said.
Foye denied the allegation and said he’d never seen documents indicating he’d been aware of the gridlock.
In earlier testimony, the Port Authority honcho recalled Baroni actually asked the lanes be re-closed because the gridlock was important to Christie’s office.
“Bill began by asking me to re-close the lane,” Foye testified, recalling a meeting on Sept. 13, one day after the gridlock had mercifully ended.
“Bill asked the lane be closed, that the issue was important to Trenton … I took that to be the governor’s office, which is in Trenton.”
Christie has previously denied knowing anything about the lane closures while they were underway — though on the opening day of arguments, a federal prosecutor charged he was informed of the scheme on the third day of gridlock.
Foye was not the only witness to admit he lied about the scandal on Wednesday.
Mayor of Fort Lee Mark Sokolich said he lied to his constituents after Christie’s reelection because he was “petrified” of what else could be in store for the town following the lane shutdown.
“I have consistently and without deviation stated on the record that in no way do I believe that these lane closures are a result of my refusal to support the governor. In fact, I advised you that I was never asked to either support or endorse the governor,” Sokolich wrote to The Star-Ledger on Nov. 14, 2013.
That statement contradicts Sokolich’s testimony under oath.
“That’s a lie, isn’t it?” Critchley asked.
“Yes,” Sokolich replied.
“Are you proud of yourself, lying to the public?” Critchley asked.
“I’m not proud of lying to the public,” Sokolich replied.
The mayor later tried to explain himself.
“I was petrified. I was petrified of further retribution,” he said, fearing that having an enemy in Trenton meant the end of a high-stakes $1 billion development in Fort Lee.
“I wanted to do everything possible to keep the borough of Fort Lee out of this story.”
In other testimony, Critchley recalled that when Christie finally decided to come to Fort Lee to apologize for the lane closures, the governor had initially wanted to land in a helicopter, in full view of the press.
Sokolich opposed that stunt, and Christie opted to arrive in a car, the mayor testified.
“I insisted with him that this would not be a photo op,” Sokolich said.