Bridgegate committee to receive report

The committee of New Jersey lawmakers that has spent the year trying to get to the bottom of the politically motivated September 2013 traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge is slated to receive a summary of its investigation so far.

Committee co-chairman John Wisniewski, a Democratic assemblyman, said the committee will receive the report Thursday and plans to make it public Monday.

Wisniewski said the report by the committee's lawyer is more than 100 pages and summarizes the investigation -- and the work done previously by the Assembly's transportation committee -- but does not draw any conclusions about what happened or make any recommendations.

"I think it's fair to describe the report as a synopsis of what we have done, what the committee has learned, and what the committee has yet to learn, and the reasons why," Wisniewski told Townsquare Media on Wednesday.

For four mornings in September 2013, two of three access lanes from Fort Lee to the New York City-bound bridge were blocked, causing massive traffic delays.

Documents released earlier this year showed that David Wildstein, then an official at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Bridget Kelly, then an aide to Gov. Chris Christie, orchestrated the shutdown, apparently as retribution toward Fort Lee's Democratic mayor. In one email, Kelly told Wildstein, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

Wildstein later contended that Christie knew about the lane closures as they happened. Christie, a possible 2016 Republican presidential contender, denies that he had any role in or knowledge of a plot to shut down the lanes.

A report commissioned by Christie cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Christie has characterized the lawmakers' investigation, led by Democrats, as politically motivated. Still, questions about the issue have loomed over Christie's political future. As chairman of the Republican Governors Association, he spent the year raising money for his party's largely successful gubernatorial races in November. That job meant traveling the country, including repeated stops in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire. The governor has said that sometime after the elections he would decide whether he would run for president in 2016.

Christie is scheduled to travel to Canada on Thursday for his third international trip since becoming governor in 2010 and his second this year.

The U.S. Attorney's Office also is looking into what happened. Nearly 11 months after the office confirmed an investigation had begun, there have been no criminal indictments.

Lawmakers have not held hearings since July because they say federal officials have asked them not to question several potential witnesses who could be part of the criminal probe.

"At some point in time, the U.S. Attorney is going to finish their work," Wisniewski said. "They're going to make a decision to issue an indictment, or they're going to make a decision that they're going to refer it to the New Jersey Attorney General, or they're going to make a decision that there's nothing for them or anyone else to do. At that point in time, the (state) committee can then resume its work."

Kevin McArdle contributed to this report.

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