GWB scandal: Port Authority won't pay legal bills for David Wildstein

The Port Authority will not pick up the legal bills of a former executive at the center of an investigation into the George Washington Bridge access lane closures.

On Friday morning, the agency notified David Wildstein, the agency executive who ordered the September lane closures, that it had turned down his request for indemnification, a Port Authority spokesman said. The notification said Wildstein’s request “would not be warranted” under the agency’s bylaws, the spokesman said.

Those bylaws state that the Port Authority will provide current and former employees with legal representation if the action in question fell within their job duties, according to its bylaws. It will not pay if there was fraud, malice, misconduct or intentional wrongdoing, the bylaws state.

The decision puts additional financial pressure on Wildstein at a time when several investigations into the lane closures proceed. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is investigating whether any federal laws were broken. There is a separate legislative investigation by a panel with subpoena power.

Wildstein, a key Christie aide at the agency with the title director of interstate capital projects, resigned from his $150,000 job as the controversy grew and hired an outside attorney, Alan Zegas, to represent him. Wildstein did not immediately return a request for comment Friday.

Another Christie appointee who resigned, former Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, has also requested indemnification, a legal designation that would allow the Port Authority to cover his legal costs. His request is still under review, the spokesman said.

Wildstein diverted two of three bridge access lanes from Fort Lee after he got a message from Christie’s deputy chief of staff stating: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” The decision caused extensive backups in the borough for more than four days until it was reversed by a New York-appointed agency official. Wildstein bypassed agency protocol and dismissed warnings from agency employees that the decision would cause problems. He also instructed a bridge employee not to notify Fort Lee officials, who later complained that first responders had trouble getting to emergencies. The ensuing legislative investigation produced a flurry of subpoenas.

The chairman of the Port Authority’s board, David Samson, was one of 18 people to receive a subpoena from lawmakers asking for documents related to the lane closures.

Samson has hired an additional attorney with strong Democratic connections, Angelo Genova, to represent him, a person familiar with the decision said. Genova is also a former Port Authority commissioner, appointed in 2003 by former Democratic Gov. James E. McGreevey. Michael Chertoff, the former secretary of U.S. Homeland Security, is also representing Samson.

Email: boburg@northjersey.com