2011. it mentions chip michaels twice. first mention indicates he has just left the emergency services unit command and the second mention is an announcement that lieutenant chip michaels has joined the george washington bridge command. a transfer, by the way, came in the same general period of time that wildstein and bill baroni were installed as chris christie s point men at the port authority. now why is this so interesting? why should you care if lieutenant thomas chip michaels is the guy who gave wildstein a tour as traffic hell was setting in on ft. lee? this is a january 2010 story in the newark star ledger when when christie was about to become governor. there s a quote from someone who has known him since their childhood in livingston. break his chops a little bit, just saying you re the governor, looking at him, laughing, said chip michaels who along with his brothers grew up with christie. it s crazy. he grew up like everyone else in
apparently gave wildstein a tour of the area as traffic was piling up in ft. lee. this is a series of text messages wildstein exchanged that morning while he was at the bridge. the identity of the person he s interacting with is redacted, redacted by wildstein s attorney. take a closer look. the unidentified person texts wildstein at 6:52 in the morning and asks to meet in the park in lot. wildstein says, no, the person should come inside the lobby where, quote, i m with bob. presumably bob durando, the general manager of the bridge, whose testimony we just played. of the next message comes at 7:09 a.m. want me to pick you up? it s messed up here, except we can t say the word really used there. it s messed up out here. wildstein responds, around 7:30. and now here is where the puzzle starts to come together because there is something is else that appears 200 pages earlier in wildstein s subpoenaed documents. it s an e-mail sent from wildstein at 7:28 that morning to durando informing h
lieutenant was with david wildstein on september 9. there s no evidence to suggest that lieutenant michaels was involved in the planning of the operation. the but the evidence suggests that chip michaels was present on the bridge at the hour the lanes were first closed, both driving david wildstein around that first morning and texting with him throughout the first two days of the closures. he seemed to have an inkling it was coming, too. in an e-mail to his superiors, michaels inquires if, quote, a new traffic pattern is going into effect the next morning. the text to wildstein on the first day of the closures offering to, quote, make this better, could be read any number of ways. is he an innocent bystander shocked by the mess and looking to help improve it, or is he telling wildstein he has an idea to make things even worse for ft. lee or is it something else altogether? we don t know. a letter from ft. lee mayor sokolich. this was at the height of the lane closure mess.
michaels who was the one who got to tell christie on election night 2009 that he d won the race. when jeff michaels appeared on a public tv show after that 2009 election, he was asked if he was close to the governor. i ve known him for a long time. we went to high school. our families knew each other from livingston. and just stayed in close contact with him over the years and was very pleased to help his campaign out with policy. close ties to the governor have caused jeff ma ed michaels are soar. the news site launched by david wildstein years ago that i used to work for, that jeff michaels even wrote a periodic column for, that site, politickernj.com, the first year christie was governor. according to their write-up, quote, the former chief of staff to donald defrancesco.
i may have idea to make this better, it reads. continues to update wildstein on the state of traffic around the george washington bridge throughout the day. he continues doing so the next morning as well telling wildstein, quote, local ft. lee traffic disaster. what is wildstein doing with all this information? take a look at this. at 8:33 that tuesday morning, michaels apparently texts wildstein that traffic is cleared on the main thoroughfare to the bridge, the i-95 approach. at 8:43, wildstein relays that same information to bill baroni. at 8:45 he relays it to bridget kelly who writes back six minutes later by saying, that is good, no? wildstein replies to her, very go good. bridgette can kelly writes to david wildstein, small favors. and that s the last involvement of chip michaels that hases so far come to light in these documents. so it appears we ve solved a mystery here. we figured out who the police l