What to Know
- David Wildstein has pleaded guilty in the scheme to tie up traffic at the bridge
- Ex-Christie staffers Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni face fraud, conspiracy and civil rights charges in the case
- Christie has repeatedly denied knowing anything about the scheme until long after it was carried out
As testimony in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing trial continues past its first week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie faces a new problem: a citizen's criminal complaint filed against him in Fort Lee Municipal Court.
Bergen County activist Bill Brennan told NBC 4 New York that he filed the complaint of official misconduct in the second degree on Wednesday. A court official confirmed the filing.
Brennan said the case has cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and added of the main players in the case: "When listening to the nonchalant manner in which these people are discussing, the magnitude of the pettiness, is just absurd."
Brennan said his criminal complaint of the governor was over the government's star witness David Wildstein's accusation that the governor knew by midweek about the lane shutdowns for political retaliation against Fort Lee's mayor, as well as the governor's subsequent failure to seek criminal prosecution of his staffers once he found out.
The governor is on record repeatedly, and as late as Tuesday, denying he was told about the closures the week of the shutdown.
The citizen's complaint was sent to the Superior Court in Hackensack, per state law, according to the court official in Fort Lee.
Local
According to a legal expert, if a superior court judge determines a probable cause, the case would go to a county prosecutor, and then if that office moves forward, to a grand jury.
