CHRIS PEDOTA / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
TRENTON - It's now up to a judge to decide whether two key figures in a political payback scandal ensnaring Governor Christie's administration will have to turn over text messages and other private communications to New Jersey lawmakers investigating the scandal over lane closures at the George Washington Bridge.
Lawyers for Christie's former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, and former campaign chairman, Bill Stepien, have said providing records related to the lane closures would violate their Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. Their attorneys have noted that they are the subjects of a federal criminal investigation.
Kelly did not speak in court Tuesday and Stepien did not attend. Mercer County Superior Court Assignment Judge Mary C. Jacobson will issue a ruling at a later date.
If Stepien turned over documents, he would essentially be testifying that he has knowledge of the incident, his attorney, Kevin Marino, argued Tuesday. Marino accused the Democratic-led legislative panel of 'trying to enlist him as an agent of the committee' to help with their investigation.
Marino picked apart the legislative panel's legal brief telling Jacobson that it misrepresents prior cases it cites as the reason why Stepien should be compelled to produce documents.
Marino's arguments came after Reid Schar, the attorney for the committee, argued that Stepien and Kelly cannot claim Fifth Amendment protections in refusing to produce documents.
'If that were true, essentially every single subpoena would be open to Fifth Amendment protection,' Schar told Jacobson earlier Tuesday.
Schar argued that documents the committee has received from other individuals show that both Stepien and Kelly have a knowledge of the lane closures. But Marino went through the five email threads that Schar provided to the court as evidence, arguing they don't show Stepien had any specific knowledge of what transpired.
Four of the five email conversations were between Stepien and David Wildstein, a top official at the Port Authority appointed by Christie. The other email was with another Christie appointee at the transportation agency, Bill Baroni.
Both Wildstein and Baroni forwarded Stepien an email Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich sent Baroni complaining about the lane closures on the fourth day of the traffic jam.
Wildstein also sent Stepien two Wall Street Journal stories related to the lane closures. The final email Wildstein sent Stepien was about a meeting with Christie officials about a waste transfer station, but in it he apologies to Stepien for causing problems so close to last year's election, in which Christie successfully sought a second term.
'Do those emails really give rise to the foregone conclusion that he's got other emails,' Marino asked. 'I'm really sorry to be causing you this much stress this close to November? It sounds to me like an apology but it doesn't sound to me like they're talking about something they've been talking about for a year and a half.'
Marino argued that the committee's subpoena is overly broad and would require Stepien to determine which emails and other documents in his possession are related to the lane closures.
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