BREAKING: Insider Claims Gov. Christie Knew About Plan To Block Bridge Traffic

Via the New York Times: 

The former Port Authority official who personally oversaw the lane closings on the George Washington Bridge in the scandal now swirling around Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said on Friday that “evidence exists” the governor knew about the lane closings when they were happening. In a letter released by his lawyer, the former official, David Wildstein, a high school friend of Mr. Christie’s who was appointed with the governor’s blessing at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the bridge, described the order to close the lanes as “the Christie administration’s order” and said “evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference” three weeks ago.

From the New York Daily News:

The closings, between Sept. 9-12, caused massive gridlock and delayed local police and ambulance response. Christie, in a two-hour news conference earlier this month, repeatedly denied any knowledge of the shutdown — which was purportedly payback against the Democratic Mayor of Fort Lee, N.J. “I would never have come out here four or five weeks ago and made a joke about these lane closings if I had ever had an inkling that anyone on my staff would have been so stupid,” Christie said at the Jan. 9 news conference. The Bergen County mayor had declined to endorse Christie during his landslide re-election campaign last year. Wildstein — a high school classmate of Christie — resigned his $150,00-a-year job as the Bridgegate scandal mushroomed. The bridge lanes were closed during the morning rush hour, and only reopened Sept. 13 after word of the shutdowns spread through the PA.

Good timing for the Super Bowl, eh?