One of Gov. Chris Christie's top staffers told a legislative committee in Trenton, N.J. on Thursday she sent text messages to Christie related to lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.
Regina Egea, whom Christie has appointed to be his next chief of staff, is the fifth current and former member of the governor's staff to go before a state legislative committee that's investigating the lane closures, which took place last year, according to CNN. She stated at the beginning of the hearing that she "had no prior knowledge of, nor participated in the lane realignment."
Egea oversaw Christie's authorities unit, which was in charge the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that owns and runs the George Washington Bridge.
She said the messages involved discussions about testimony in relation to the bridge and included a compliment toward an employee about his "professionalism," the Wall Street Journal reported. She added that she would text Christie frequently, and he would respond "at times." Egea testified that she would sometimes delete messages in her phone and that she thought she deleted them before the bridge scandal, but wasn't sure.
What was said in the messages was not revealed, and Egea said she would keep them.
"We've all been refreshed on the requirement to retain documents," she said.
Those who opposed the lane closures argued that they were put in place to cause massive traffic gridlock in Fort Lee as a way to punish the Democratic mayor of the city, CNN reported.
State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, a Democrat and committee co-chair, asked Egae why she didn't talk to the New York-appointed executive director of Port Authority after he wrote in a memo that he believed the "ill advised" lane closures may have violated state law.
Egea responded by saying she "took his comments to mean he was taking action to investigate given all of the information he had and I didn't have." She added that Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, her contact through the agency, explained to her the closures were part of a traffic study, and the executive director wrote the memo due to ongoing issues between New York and New Jersey.
The hearing also led to an exchange between Egea and Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, who was reportedly annoyed after she refused to say there was no traffic study. Egea said she wasn't focusing on the news because she wanted to be open to the issue, additionally providing data showing that the study took place, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Moriarty responded by saying the only people who believed the traffic study took place "also believe in the tooth fairy," to which one of Egea's lawyers replied the committee was being "offensive." Egea stated she didn't like being compared to the tooth fairy.
