At his press conference Friday afternoon, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) raised the possibility that the motivation behind the George Washington Bridge lane closures may never be known.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever know what the motive is,” Christie told reporters. “As I said when I was here on Jan. 9, it mystifies me on every level why this was done. And I hope someday to have an answer to why it was done. But I certainly don’t have a crystal ball and I can’t tell you if or when I’ll ever know. But do I hope to after all this? You bet I hope to.”
A legal team representing Christie’s office on Thursday released the results of an internal review of the lane closures. The legal team’s report cleared Christie of having any role in the closures, which caused a massive traffic jam in Fort Lee, N.J. The report pinned the blame for the plan to close the lanes on two former Christie allies: former Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly and former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive David Wildstein who, according to the report, “knowingly participated” in the plan “at least in part, for some ulterior motive to target [Fort Lee, N.J. Mayor Mark Sokolich.]”
