newark<u+2014>the george washington bridge lane-closure trial was delayed thursday by a wrong time stamp on text messages used as evidence, the judge said. assistant u.s. attorney david feder said friday the delay stemmed from a glitch in the program that was used to extract text messages from a cellphone. this program didn<u+2019>t correctly process daylight-saving time, he said. michael critchley jr., who represents bridget kelly, said there was a specific text exchange with the wrong time stamp that would make it appear that ms. kelly had been lying when she said she had spoken to the governor<u+2019>s then-press secretary. <u+201c>[the jury would assume that] ms. kelly must have been lying when she said, <u+2018>i spoke to mike,<u+2019><u+201d> mr. critchley jr. said. the arguments also created a rare rift between defense attorneys for ms. kelly and bill baroni, who rarely publicly disagree. michael baldassare, who represents mr. baroni, argued friday that fixing the time stamp on the text messages would hurt his client. <u+201c>the substance of testimony that is critical to our case will look wrong,<u+201d> mr. baldassare said. <u+201c>both mr. wildstein and mr. baroni testified about it in a way that the time matters,<u+201d> he added, referring to david wildstein, who has pleaded guilty and admitted to being the architect of the lane closures. the judge said she would read a statement to the jury explaining the time issue. both sides moved for a mistrial, but the judge denied the motion. ms. kelly and mr. baroni, both former allies of new jersey gov. chris christie, are on trial for their alleged roles in creating traffic jams as political punishment. closing arguments are expected to begin friday, and jury deliberations are expected next week. write to corinne ramey at corinne.ramey@wsj.com
delay in george washington bridge trial caused by wrong time stamps on texts - wsj
corinne ramey