This week, Chris Christie got to celebrate his birthday with a
seventh downgrading of New Jersey's state credit bond rating, starting a record for one New Jersey governor. He also got a present of sorts from his old friend
Port Authority Police Lt. Thomas "Chip" Micheals, who did his best to blame everything on Wildstein when interviewed by the legislative committee's attorney:
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As...Patrol Supervisor for the Port Authority Police Department...Lt. Michaels creates roll calls and assigns patrol officers to shifts...In January 2014, Lt. Michaels was briefly moved to the staff lieutenant position at the George Washington Bridge...He has recently moved back to the patrol supervisor position.
In September 2013...Lt. Michaels report(ed) to...Darcy Licorish...(a) Deputy Inspector and Port Authority Police Department commander for the GWB...Lt. Michaels was familiar with the George Washington Bridge general manager Robert Durando...with whom he did not regularly interact.
Lt. Michaels...and Wildstein both grew up in Livingston, N.J...Michaels’ brother Jeff Michaels, is active in New Jersey politics and developed a relationship with Wildstein through their shared political connections...Lt. Michaels coached one of the Governor’s sons on a youth hockey team. (He) had occasional interactions with Gov. Christie at the hockey rink, but...no “shop talk...”
(I)n the week leading up to the Fort Lee lane closures...Wildstein (called and asked) what would happen if Fort Lee’s lanes were reduced from three down to one, and Lt. Michaels explained it would create “a f***ing disaster...” Michaels said he did not at the time think much of the call. However, he remembered mentioning it in passing to his brother, Jeff...
On Sunday, September 8, 2013, a civilian Port Authority employee asked Lt. Michaels if he was ready for the “new traffic pattern.” (He) did not recall which employee posed the question, but did not believe it was Durando. Lt. Michaels said Port Authority staff were preparing to change the cone line that evening... (He) sent Deputy Inspector Licorish an email at 12:19 p.m. on September 8... Licorish confirmed that maintenance personnel would implement a new traffic pattern.
On the morning of September 9, 2013, Lt. Michaels reported to work at his scheduled time of 5:00 a.m....When Lt. Michaels arrived at the communications desk, he found Wildstein observing bridge traffic through video monitors. Lt. Michaels could not recall who first suggested it, but he agreed to give Wildstein a ride into Fort Lee in order to observe the traffic directly...
(He) asked Licorish if anyone had informed the Fort Lee Police Department about the traffic re-alignment, and Licorish replied that he had not. Lt. Michaels then called FLPD Chief Bendul...(who) complained that the closures were “killing me” and asked that the Port Authority “open the f***ing lanes...”
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I thought the police were trained to be good at observing and remembering minute details, especially when they don't quite fit. Michaels has no idea who told him there was going to be lane closure? He thought Wildstein's question was weird, but thought nothing of discussing it with his brother? He can't remember whether he drove Wildstein around at his invitation or at Wildstein's request? Did he contact the Fort Lee police with Licorish's knowledge, at Licorsh's order, or out the goodness of his heart? And if Wildstein should be seen as at fault, how does Michaels explain this?
Quote:
About a month after the lane closures, Lt. Michaels...received another telephone call from Wildstein, who asked how many toll lanes are on the GWB upper deck, how many were E-ZPass lanes, and how many toll lanes were on the lower deck...the conversation made him question how Wildstein could have organized or directed a traffic study if he did not have such basic information...
Lt. Michaels initially thought Wildstein must have been fairly sharp and capable if he represented Gov. Christie at the Port Authority...(H)e concluded that Wildstein’s “ego was too big.”
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Well, that would mean that
somebody else organized it, wouldn't it? And wouldn't that somebody else most likely be the person who gave Wildstein his job?
That's why Michaels was given a desk job this January -- and here I was thinking it was to shield him from all the Bridge(t)-Gate media attention!
Next up: What Chip's boss has to say...