a day after the star witness in the george washington bridge lane-closure trial testified the governors of new york and new jersey devised a cover story to contain the fallout from the scandal, the veracity of that account came under attack. federal prosecutors highlighted the witness<u+2019>s lack of firsthand knowledge of the conversation and new york gov. andrew cuomo flatly denied it took place. <u+201c>it didn<u+2019>t happen,<u+201d> mr. cuomo said when asked whether he and new jersey gov. chris christie agreed to issue a report stating the lane closures were a traffic study. <u+201c>it didn<u+2019>t happen, because there was no report.<u+201d> still, one defense attorney has said to the jury the trial will feature testimony from one of mr. cuomo<u+2019>s top appointees that the two governors discussed mr. christie<u+2019>s anger that an executive with the port authority of new york and new jersey was <u+201c>meddling with his campaign<u+201d> by pushing too hard to investigate the lane closures<u+2014>a conversation messrs. cuomo and christie have previously denied having. that appointee, scott rechler, former vice chairman of the port authority, would testify that he was told of that conversation by mr. cuomo, the attorney said. mr. rechler didn<u+2019>t respond to a request for comment. have something to say about an article in greater new york? email us, along with your contact information, at gnyltrs@wsj.com . letters will be edited for brevity and clarity. please include your city and state. wednesday was the eighth and final day of testimony of david wildstein, the government<u+2019>s star witness in the trial of bill baroni and bridget kelly. prosecutors say mr. baroni, the former deputy executive director of the port authority, and ms. kelly, a former deputy chief of staff to mr. christie, orchestrated a scheme to create traffic jams in fort lee, n.j., to punish the borough<u+2019>s democratic mayor for not endorsing mr. christie, a republican. both have pleaded not guilty. mr. christie hasn<u+2019>t been accused of wrongdoing and has repeatedly denied involvement in or knowledge of the lane closures. a spokesman hasn<u+2019>t responded to requests for comment on the alleged conversation with mr. cuomo, a democrat. in u.s. district court in newark on wednesday, a prosecutor asked about the conversation mr. wildstein had described between the governors. mr. wildstein had previously testified that the governors spoke in october 2013, a month after the lane closures. the witness said the governors agreed that a report would say the lane closures were a traffic study, and that the new jersey side of the port authority would accept responsibility for communication failures. mr. wildstein said patrick foye, the new york head of the bistate agency, would sign off on this, thereby putting <u+201c>an end to this issue.<u+201d> an attorney for mr. foye has said this never occurred. <u+201c>were you actually a party to any of those conversations between the new jersey governor and the new york governor?<u+201d> said assistant u.s. attorney lee cortes on wednesday. <u+201c>no sir, i was not,<u+201d> said mr. wildstein. <u+201c>do you know for a fact whether those conversations actually happened?<u+201d> mr. cortes asked. <u+201c>no, i don<u+2019>t know,<u+201d> mr. wildstein replied. he had heard of these conversations secondhand, he said, from the port authority<u+2019>s former chairman and mr. baroni. also on wednesday, federal prosecutors called as a witness christopher stark, a former staffer in the intergovernmental affairs office, where ms. kelly previously worked. the office had a policy of not responding to those they called <u+201c>hands-off mayors,<u+201d> mr. stark testified. during a meeting with senior christie aides, mr. stark said he asked ms. kelly if the fort lee mayor was on that list. <u+201c>i asked ms. kelly<u+2026>if we could get in contact with the mayor of fort lee again, and she said, <u+2018>no, we<u+2019>re doing enough to mess with him,<u+2019><u+201d> mr. stark testified. ms. kelly<u+2019>s lawyer, michael critchley, noted during his cross-examination of mr. stark that mayors could be <u+201c>hands-off<u+201d> for a variety of reasons, and staffers might not know why someone was being ignored. for example, the attorney said, monmouth county freeholder john curley became <u+201c>hands-off<u+201d> after he left a voice mail for mr. stark about the governor. <u+201c>who does that fat f<u+2014> think he is?<u+201d> mr. stark testified the voice mail said, which was left after superstorm sandy hit new jersey. <u+201c>he<u+2019>s done nothing but press conferences.<u+201d> later mr. christie phoned the freeholder, mr. stark said. <u+201c>from what i understand of that conversation, the governor told mr. curley, <u+2018>who the f<u+2014> do you think you are calling me a fat f<u+2014>? i am the f<u+2014> governor of this state.<u+2019><u+201d> mr. christie said if the freeholder wasn<u+2019>t standing behind him at an event he would <u+201c>destroy<u+201d> him, and threatened to widely distribute a robocall telling republicans not to vote for the freeholder, mr. stark added. the staffer said mr. curley was <u+201c>hands-off<u+201d> for a bit, but <u+201c>eventually we started communications<u+201d> again with the freeholder. a spokesman for mr. christie didn<u+2019>t respond to a request for comment. mr. curley didn<u+2019>t respond to a request for comment. <u+2014>ted mann and erica orden contributed to this article. write to corinne ramey at corinne.ramey@wsj.com
prosecutors question witness<u+2019>s knowledge of christie-cuomo chat - wsj
corinne ramey