On Sunday, the Port Authority’s executive director Pat Foye issued an investigation into the new report that a Port Authority police officer, with personal ties to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, was at the George Washington Bridge when access lanes were closed last September. A new paper trail indicates the officer drove David Wildstein, the Christie appointee who supervised the closings, on a tour of the area as traffic brought it to a standstill.
Foye requested the agency’s inspector general investigate the reported actions of police officers who were at the bridge during the lane closures, according to a source close to the Police Department.
Documents submitted to a New Jersey legislative committee by Wildstein also show that the officer, Lieutenant Thomas “Chip” Michaels, appears to have sent periodic text messages to Wildstein updating him on the effects of the lane closures and their crippling impact on the town of Fort Lee. In one message, on the first day of the lane closures, Michaels told Wildstein he might have an idea to “make this better.” It is not clear what he meant.
Michaels, who joined the Port Authority Police Department in 1998 according to payroll records, grew up in Christie and Wildstein’s hometown of Livingston, N.J. In recent years, he coached Christie’s son at little league hockey. Michael’s brother, Jeffrey Michaels is among the most powerful Republicans in New Jersey politics – a lobbyist whose practice has soared in value during the Christie years and who has donated heavily to pro-Christie organizations.
Michaels’ presence at the lane closures with Wildstein is an important new detail because it places another person with long-time ties to the governor, this time in the Port Authority Police Department, at the scene witnessing the traffic surge that has since come to engulf Chrstie’s administration in legal inquires.
The revelation is also important because Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich had earlier questioned the Port Authority Police Department’s actions during the closures. In a September 12 letter, Sokolich wrote to Port Authority deputy executive director Bill Baroni, a Christie appointee who has since resigned, that residents had told him that “Port Authority Police Officers are advising commuters in response to their complaints that this recent traffic debacle is the result of a decision that I, as the Mayor, recently made.” There is no evidence that Michaels was one of these officers.
In a statement released Monday, the Christie administration said the governor “has never had any conversations with either Jeff or Chip Michaels on this topic.” Christie emphatically denies taking part in or having any knowledge of the decision to close the lanes leading onto one of the busiest bridge in the world. He has said he doesn’t know why members of his inner circle would have ordered the lanes closed.
After e-mails surfaced last month revealing his top aides discussed and apparently took part in the lane closures, Christie fired his deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly and cut ties with Bill Stepien, one of his top political lieutenants. Wildstein, who served as director of interstate capital projects, resigned from the Port Authority in December. In a recent letter to the Authority, Wildstein’s lawyer asserted that “evidence exists” showing that Christie knew of the lane closures while they were happening.
The governor’s office, Christie’s reelection campaign, and multiple top aides have been subpoenaed by the state legislative committee investigating the lane closures. A separate inquiry is underway at the U.S. Attorney’s office, which is looking into the lane closures and also into allegations made by the mayor of Hoboken, N.J., that Christie officials threatened to withhold Sandy relief money from her city unless she moved forward with a redevelopment project represented by the law firm of one of Christie’s top political allies, Port Authority Chairman David Samson. The Governor’s office has denied any linkage between the project and Sandy money.
In 2010, a Newark Star-Ledger article described the Christie-Michaels family friendship as one that has endured for decades.
“We break his chops a little bit, just saying, ‘You’re the Governor?,’ looking at him laughing,” Chip Michaels told the paper. “It’s crazy. He grew up like everyone else in New Jersey. So to see him as a celebrity, it’s just really odd. But he’s the same guy. He’s a grounded guy.” At the time the article was published, Michaels was coaching one of Christie’s sons in a youth hockey league. The article described a friendship dating back to their childhoods.
Multiple attempts to reach Chip Michaels directly and through the Port Authority were unsuccessful. The Port Authority Police Department has not returned calls for comment. Messages and emails sent to Jeffrey Michaels were not responded to.
Chip Michaels’ presence at the bridge at the time of the lane closures came to light during a review of documents that were subpoenaed by the New Jersey State Assembly’s Transportation Committee late last year and released publicly in early January.
It was previously known that Wildstein and Robert Durando, the general manager of the George Washington Bridge, were present when the lane closures went into effect at 6:00 A.M. on September 9. In testimony before the Transportation Committee last December, Durando said that Wildstein had also met up with a Port Authority police lieutenant to tour the area.
“He [Wildstein] came to the facility on Monday morning,” Durando testified. “He stood at the communications desk for a little while – it’s an area with cameras to look out at the various roadways – limited view, albeit. He stayed there for a little while. He then left the facility, left the communications desk with a police lieutenant assigned to the George Washington Bridge, to ride around the facility for some period of time to see the impact on traffic.”









