Christie's question-and-answer session came as a surprise. He hadn't taken questions from State House reporters since Sept. 6, mostly limiting his media availability to his monthly radio call-in show on NJ 101.5-FM. And his public schedule listed Christie with "no availability" Tuesday, a signal that he would not be taking questions from the media.
One major question hanging over Christie has been conflicting accounts of what he knew about the lane closures and when. Christie has repeatedly said he did not know of his senior staff's involvement in the lane realignments until January 2014, when documents showed his former deputy chief Bridget Anne Kelly and former Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni communicated with David Wildstein, then a senior Port Authority official, about realigning traffic to the bridge, causing major traffic over a week in September 2013.
But besides Baroni, Kelly and Wildstein, three people — all close to the governor — testified that they did notify Christie of his staff's knowledge of the lane realignments before a Dec. 13, 2013, news conference where he told a reporter he had "absolutely no reason to believe" anyone on his staff had closed lanes for political retribution. Kelly and Baroni were found guilty in the trial, while Wildstein has pleaded guilty. They all await sentencing.
