Attorney For Former Christie Aide Calls Witness Against Her ‘Bernie Madoff’ Of NJ Politics

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly and her attorney Michael Critchley, right, arrive for a news conference, Friday, May 1, 2015, in Livingston, N.J. Earlier Friday, feder... New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly and her attorney Michael Critchley, right, arrive for a news conference, Friday, May 1, 2015, in Livingston, N.J. Earlier Friday, federal prosecutors brought charges against three former allies of Gov. Chris Christie, but not Christie himself, in the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal, easing the legal threat that has hung over his 2016 White House ambitions for more than a year. One of those charged, David Wildstein, a former high-ranking official at the transportation agency that operates the bridge, pleaded guilty and accused the two other defendants, Kelly and Bill Baroni, who was the governor's top appointee at the Port Authority, of joining him in a politically motivated scheme to create huge traffic jams. Kelly and Baroni were charged in an indictment unsealed later Friday. (AP Photo/Mel Evans) MORE LESS
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The attorney for one of Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s former staffers calls the star witness against her in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing case “the Bernie Madoff of New Jersey politics.”

Michael Critchley used the term in closing arguments Monday to describe David Wildstein, a former bridge authority official who pleaded guilty. He testified that Bridget Kelly and another defendant schemed to punish a Democratic mayor who didn’t endorse Christie.

Critchley says Wildstein concocted the scheme to impress Christie.

Jurors could begin deliberating Monday.

Kelly wrote the infamous “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” email a month before the September 2013 lane closures.

She testified she deleted that email and others because she was scared others in Christie’s administration who knew of the lane closures weren’t being forthcoming.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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