americans will find inspiring. getting up and taking action about something that you didn't think was right. katie fahey and barak goodman, thank you both for being with me tonight. >> thank you. >> that is all for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. good evenings, rachel. >> good evening, ali. that was a fascinating segment. those are really good guests on this subject. that was best discussion i've heard on this in a really long time. >> thank you, friend. you have a great weekend and great -- we got another day. just have a great night. >> i'm planning inning on havind weekend. >> this is where my mind is. thank you at home for joining us this hour. happy to have you with us. we're going to start with something tonight that's a little bit off the beaten path but there's a good reason for it. trust me. it starts with former new jersey governor chris christie who you may have noticed has become sort of an odd figure in politics these days. particularly in republican politics these days. in this era of the trump presidency. chris christie, of course, was thought of as being a strong

contender for the republican nomination in 2012, but he decided not to run in 2012. he did make a go for the republican presidential nomination in 2016, but nothing really seemed to come together for him that year. he sputtered out earlier than people thought he would. he got only 2% of the vote in iowa in 2016. he came in sixth place in new hampshire, which is where he'd. really been giving it his all. but just became clear pretty fast that there was no republican appetite in 2016 for what he had to offer. and then, interesting decision, chris christie saw the writing on the wall earlier than the rest of the republican presidential contenders did. and as he dropped out of the race, again, early on, he endorsed donald trump and that was at a time when no prominent republicans were fixing their cart to that particular horse. i mean, at the time, chris christie plighted his trough with donald trump, he was alone.

i mean, the closest trump had to some other high profile endorsement at that time was failed 2008 presidential candidate rudy giuliani admitting publicly that, yes, okay, he'd admit it, he sometimes spoke to trump by phone. i mean, even rudy giuliani was not willing to endorse that guy at that point in 2016, but christie came right out and did. and it was an unusual decision. and everybody assumed that maybe some of the political logic there was that christie was gunning for the attorney general gig, or maybe even the vice president gig, or some other huge role in the trump administration in the unlikely event that donald trump would win the presidency. ultimately, christie did get put in charge of building the trump transition team, but only as long as they thought he wouldn't -- they thought they wouldn't actually need it. they put chris christie in charge of the trump transition in may 2016, only 6 months

before the election happen. once trump actually won the election and really did need a transition team, they took that job away from chris christie. they threw all his work out the window and actually became sort of a triumphant steve bannon/jared kushner anecdote from the trump campaign. that time right after they won when they fired chris christie and literally threw away, threw in the trash can, all the materials and all the planning that christie had done to plan for the transition of power and setting up the new administration. he'd been doing the work on the transition for six months. as soon as they got in there, they fired him and got rid of all of his work. oh, chris christie explicitly warned us against mike flynn being national security adviser. christie says he wouldn't let general flynn into the white house, let alone give him a job. well, neener, neener, we'll show that chris christie, we'll swear in mike flynn as national security adviser. yeah, what could possibly go wrong? and would christie, himself, get a top-tier job in the new trump

administration? nope. no thanks. thanks for that early brave endorsement, though. thanks for all your work that we reveled in telling the press that we threw out. thanks for everything. bye. chris christie does have a tv contract. he did write a book that says not one negative word about donald trump. in some other settings, he's occasionally mildly critical of the administration. but it's interesting, mostly he is just unattached. this guy who was, you know, definitely going to be a top-tier contender in 2012 had he run, who was in the top tier of national serious republican politics for a decade, right now he's like this little floating free radical out there who nobody has any link to. in a way that really is odd in this era. but if there's one thing that most explains why that is, why that worked out that way, it may be bridgegate. do you remember bridgegate? i know it was years ago. but it turns out there is now a really interesting twist.

right at the end here. and you probably remember the basics of the story, right? some of the first newspaper ink that was devoted to bridgegate came in the form of a local traffic column in the "bergen record" in new jersey. it was september 13th, 2013. the local traffic columnist wrote up a weird and unusually terrible week for commuters who were trying to drive from new jersey to new york. this f twas the photo that ran with the story. you can see if you look closely, see there's a guy there standing in the middle of the traffic right next to the cones. it's not like he's a cop or anybody official. he's just a dude in khakis and a blue shirt standing to the side of his own car just trying to figure out what it was that had completely stopped traffic getting onto the nation's most heavily trafficked bridge, the george washington bridge, from the new jersey town of ft. lee toward new york city. the traffic was so stopped you could park and get out of your car. the traffic was so stopped, it was completely stopped, not

moving at all, for hours and hours and hours. that column about the traffic jam on the bridge in ft. lee, that ran on a friday, but actually, the traffic had been like that all week long. it had started on that monday. it went on day after day that week. it not only stopped traffic onto the bridge, that traffic jam for traffic getting onto the bridge, it gridlocked all of the surface streets in the town of ft. lee, new jersey. in that whole town. with hundreds of cars backed up onto that town's streets, all of them for hours with nowhere to go, not just during rush hour, but hours beyond. coming and going. and it was more than just a nuisance or a quirk. ems response times ballooned as a result of that weird unusual and unnatural traffic. paramedics were delayed in reaching an unconscious 91-year-old woman. that woman later died of cardiac arrest at the hospital. emergency responders were late in getting to the home of a person who called 911 complaining of chest pains because of standstill traffic on

route 46 east in ft. lee, new jersey. traffic that was a result of the backup at the bridge. among the people caught in the massive traffic jam were police who were assigned to look for a 4-year-old boy who had gone missing. that traffic jam had started on a monday. that monday was also the first day of school that year. and so on day one of the school year, school buses were late getting thousands of kids to school for their first day at school. and that was monday and then it went on like that all week with no relief what soosoever. now, this might have been an unfortunate story about an inexplicable unusually bad traffic jam were it not for the fact it became clear pretty quickly that it was manmade and apparently deliberately manmade. the port authority, which runs the bridge, put out a statement saying that the whole mess did not happen organically, it was the result of a traffic study.

problem was, local officials who would be in a position to know if that were true said they weren't buying that, they don't think that's what actually happened. the police chief, for example, told the "bergen. record," "its not true." when the mayor of ft. lee was asked about the situation, he responded by saying, "iasked the port authority for an explanation but they haven't responded. i thought we had a good relationship. now i'm beginning to wonder if there's something i did wrong. am i being sent some sort of message?" the "bergen record" and other new jersey media outlets and later obtained a flood of evidence showing that, in fact, this looked very much like the mayor of ft. lee, new jersey, was being sent some kind of message. that evidence included an email sent by governor christie's deputy chief of staff, bridget ann kelly, on august 13th, 2013, about a month before the bridge closures. that email was sent by bridget kelly to one of governor chris christie's top guys at the port

authority, a guy named david wildstein, the christie appointee who initially issued that bogus explanation that some sort of traffic study was to blame for the gridlock. wildstein was the same christie appointee who gave the orders to close those lane s onto that bridge which caused the gridlock. wildstein was the same political appointee we later learned had given specific instructions to bridge employees not to warn the local police or the town of ft. lee what was about to hilt them in terms of this traffic armageddon, but that email sent is to him by christie's chief of staff, bridget kelly, on august 13th about a month before the lane closures said, "time for some traffic problems in ft. lee." david wildstein responded, "got it." about three weeks later on september 6th, david wildstein called one of the port authority's directors to inform him that that coming monday, these lane closures would take place on the bridge. that guy from the port authority said that was a very unusual

call because traffic disruptions on major facilities like the george washington bridge, those things are typically planned years in advance. you wouldn't get notified, hey, this is going to happen on monday. the george washington bridge manager says wildstein instructed him not to tell anyone about it. not even ft. lee police. when david wildstein received information in response, when he was told in response that this was going to be a disaster, this was going be a catastrophe, he shrugged off those warnings. he said we should go ahead. the warnings, of course, turned out to be spot-on because as designed, when the traffic lanes onto that bridge got shut down, everything in ft. lee, new jersey, went straight to heck. as the chaos was taking hold, the mayor of ft. lee started pleading by phone, by text, by email, he was contacting bill baroni, who was david wildstein's boss at the port authority. he was another chris christie appointee. the mayor of ft. lee and other officials were complaining about really serious stuff. they're complaining about

ambulances being delayed and trying to get to people who are having heart attacks. i mean, email showed that the mayor and others were purposely met with, "radio silence." david wildstein forwarded a complaint from the ft. lee mayor to bridget ann kelly over at chris christie's office. the mayor said he was frustrated that school buses couldn't get kids to their first day of school. bridget kelly's response, "is it wrong that i'm smiling?" wildstein's response "no, no, it's not wrong that you're smiling." kelly "i feel badly about the kids, i guess." david wildstein responds, "they are the children of buono voters." meaning barbara buono, the democratic candidate who was running against chris christie for governor when he ran for re-election that year. i mean, privately, all these messages were being sent back and forth about causing problems in that town of ft. lee. about greeting their panicked

cries for help with radio silence. about the pleasure these christie staffers and appointees were taking in the pain they were causing. the children of democratic voters. that was what was happening privately. publicly, the message was, oh, this is just a traffic study, is it causing trouble? hmm? i mean, two months later in november of that year, bill baroni, christie's top appointee at the port authority, david wildstein's boss, he ended up testifying before the state assembly in new jersey. it was a two-hour performance. he tried to sell the legislature this cover story of what had really happened with the bridge. he tried to sell them that it had been a traffic study even though that was a made-up cover story. now, throughout all of this, governor christie and his top spokesman, michael druniak, repeatedly said governor christie didn't bother with decisions as trivial as traffic jams. the governor, himself, even joked about it. >> i worked the cones, actually. unbeknownst to everybody, i was actually the guy out there.

i was in overalls and a hat so i wasn't -- i actually was the guy working the cones out there. you really are not serious with that question. >> after that, though, things started to unravel pretty quickly. a few days after christie joked that he was the one out there working the cones, david wildstein submitted his resignation from the port authority. a week after david wildstein resigned from the port authority, christie's other even more senior appointee there, bill baroni, he also quit. and then those emails came out. including the one calling for some traffic problems in ft. lee. at which point governor christie stopped joking around about it and got serious. >> this morning, i've terminated the employment of bridget kelly, effective immediately. i terminated her employment because she lied to me. i have not had any conversation with bridget kelly since the email came out, and so she was not given the opportunity to explain to me why she lied because it was so obvious that she had. and i'm, quite frankly, not

interested in the explanation at the moment. >> "i'm not interested in the explanation." but, you know, she sure as heck must have concocted this whole thing herself. during that same press conference, reporters pushed hard, right, asking questions as to whether this really was what it was starting to look like, whether this was really the governor's staff and appointees shutting down access to this huge bridge, the busiest bridge in the country, purposely gridlocking a whole town for days and days and days, just to punish the ft. lee mayor, mark sakolige, for his grave political crime of yrefusing to endorse chris christie in his re-election effort. >> as i've said to you all many times before, mayor sakolige was never on my radar screen. i don't remember meeting him until i saw his picture last night on television, i wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a lineup. >> i wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a lineup.

might i suggest he's the one who should be in the lineup? itch if y even if you accept the governor couldn't pick the ft. lee mayor out of a lineup, his staff could. he later told reporters he'd been courted for two years to endorse chris christie for re-election, heading into that november 2013 election, the christie team was not just trying to get christie to win, that was basically a fore gone conclusion in new jersey politics at that time. they were trying to run up the score, trying to get him as big an overall number in the election as possible and specifically, they wanted to get him as much crossover democratic support as possible because they thought that would set him up well for a national presidential run in 2016. wouldn't that be a great story to tell? part of that strategy was to get mayors of new jersey towns, particularly democratic mayors, to publicly throw their support behind chris christie. well, ahead of the bridge lane shutdown, mayor sakolige said a m young guy named matt mowers

would meet with him and tell him about other democrats endorsing chris christie. "on at least three occasions mayor sakolige says mowers brought up the subject of the possible endorsement." he was on their radar and definitely on their radar during the lane closures with wildstein insisting anything from the mayor complaining about what was happening to his town, any complaints should be greeted with, "radio silence. but beyond that, behind the scenes, everybody really seemed to be having a hoot at the mayor's expense. a few days after the closures, david wildstein sent a press report about the traffic jam to bill stepian, who was chris christie's campaign manager at the time for his re-election effort. mr. stepian read it fine. the mayor's an idiot." wildstein emailed bill stepian, "it will be a tough november for this little serbian."

mayor sokolich is not serbian. he's of croatian descent. those are things people mind, getting those screwed up. days after the bridge lane shutdown, michael druniak was fielding inquiries from reporters. when the christie appointees at the port authority started to freak out to the press about it, we got more evidence how they felt about this whole thing. david wildstein texted bill baroni, "hey, "the wall street journal" called my cell phone." bill baroni responds, "jesus." less than a minute later, "call druniak." in the whole sea of emails and texts that were eventually uncovered in the scandal, we learned the governor's spokesman, druniak, the governor's deputy chief of staff, bridget kelly. bill baroni. matt mowers. director of relations, renna. they were all at least somewhat in the loop on this crisis while

it was still under way and immediately thereafter. and yet, here was christie in december. >> there was nobody on my staff who had any knowledge of this issue until after the issue was already done. >> months later, governor christie's office would commission their own million-dollar internal report to investigate the bridgegate matter. get to the bottom of it. taxpayers would pay. he'd have one of rudy's best friends do it. that report had a very similar throughline from the president's press conference from back in january. i said december, but january. the one where he said that he had fired bridget kelly and he was not interested in any of her explanations. that internal report commissioned by christie's office was mostly greeted as a laughingstalk in part because it's so emphatically cleared governor christie of anything and everything you could have used it to recommend him for

sainthood to the vatican. it was also greeted as a laughing jlaugh laughi laughingstalk, the report, i kid you not, went out of its way to blame the bridge scandal without exp plplanation on purported difficulties in bridget kelly's love life which i'm sure these guys enjoyed detailing in that report. but the relevance to the governor's scandal involving the bridge was quite hard to see. a new jersey legislative committee also investigated. they decided they couldn't decide. they said they couldn't find conclusive evidence either way as to whether christie knew about the lane closures in advance. a third investigation was a federal criminal investigation brought by the u.s. attorney in new jersey. that investigation did not charge governor christie, but it wasn't exactly kind to him. in that investigation, david wildstein pled guilty. he agreed to testify against bill baroni and bridget kelly. barony and kelly were indicted. federal prosecutors, again, wrr weren't charging christie at

that trial but started the trial with what "the new york times" called an unexpected and startling opening statement. it they acknowledged right off the bat on the outside of the trial that governor chris christie of new jersey knew three of his top officials were involved in a plan to shut down lanes leading to the george washington bridge as it was happening and that the closings were intended to punish a local mayor for declining to support him. i mean, look at that page 1 headline in "the new york times." "chris christie knew about bridge lane closings as they happened. u.s. asserts. prosecutors say, christie knew after the bridge plot as it happene happened." prosecutors say david wildstein and bill baroni had bragged to governor christie about the lane closings at a memorial service on 9/11. we had previously seen a photo of the three of them sort of yucking it up on september 11 1h yucking it up on september 111t

at the world trade center. that was the third day of the lane closures. during wildstein's testimony, he said he and baroni were boasting to governor christie about how the lane closures had been done to mess with mayor soko l lich in ft. lee and how the mayor's call and texts were being deliberately ignored. now, baroni contested that on the stand, but baroni was convict ed at trial. bridget kelly was also convicted at trial. she testified for her part that she believed that the lane closures were part of a legitimate traffic study. and she testified she told christie about the plan on august 12th, a day before she september that email ca sent that email calling for some traffic problems in ft. lee. she testified she told christie in advance the closures would cause tremendous traffic problems for ft. lee. she says christie approved it, anyway. she says she talked to christie about the lane closures twice while they were under way and one of those times she passed along mayor sokolich asked whether the traffic problems were brought about as some sort of form of government

retribution. now, i should tell you we reached out to governor christie for this story. he did not respond to us directly. he did issue a statement yesterday saying, "as i have said before, i had no knowledge of this scheme prior to or during these lane realignments and had no role in authorizing them. no credible evidence was ever presented to contradict that fact. anything said to the contrary is simply untrue." he sent that statement generally yesterday, he sent it to us specifically today. ahead of their sentencing, after baroni and kelly were convicted, prosecutors argued that neither bill baroni nor bridget kelly shown shown leniency because neither had been fully truthful on the stand. now we're learning how this ends. it turns out getting some twists in the plot at the very end. bill baroni got sentenced to 18 months behind bars in federal prison. he reported to prison earlier this month to start serving his sentence. just yesterday, bridget anne kelly was sentenced as well.

she was sentenced to 13 months. she is appealing her conviction to the u.s. supreme court. and it is striking that all of the people apparently tangleded up in this mess, of all of them, only two of them are going to prison. but what's even more striking is that some of them are not just avoiding prison, they're really thriving in the trump era. bill stepian, chris christie's campaign manager, his name came up hundreds of times at the bridgegate trial. he ran the overall effort for christie's re-election effort to get all the democratic mayors to endorse christie. wildstein testified that he told bill stepian all about the plan for ft. lee and the bridge and why they were doing it and even he told him about the whole traffic study cover story. he says he told stepian about it all in advance. christie cut ties with bill stepian when the scandal broke open. bill stepian's doing great now. he was appointed white house political director for president trump. he's now moved on to become a senior figure in the trump re-election campaign. matt mowers, the guy who

repeatedly pursued the ft. lee mayor's endorsement until the mayor didn't bite and then he had to be punished, matt mowers ended up at the trump state department. he's now starting a consulting company and also plans to be working on the president's re-election effort. ex-governor chris christie, well, you know, he's floating around out there. doing okay. that said, this scandal has stuck to him a little bit like a little t.p. on the shoe heel. but bruidget kelly, she got sentenced yesterday. she's now about to report to federal prison unless the president, himself, or the supreme court intervenes in her case. and now she says there's something that you should know about this whole fiasco that. you definitely haven't heard about before. something that has not been any part of this news story before. bridget kelly was just sentenced to federal prison yesterday. she's here tonight in studio and will join us here live. stay with us. that's why there's ocuvite. screen light...

sunlight... longer hours... eyes today are stressed! but ocuvite has vital nutrients to help protect them. ocuvite. eye nutrition for today. you wouldn't accept from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase. but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer. giving you the power to actually lower your cost. unfortunately, it can't do anything about that. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? p3 it's meat, cheese and nuts. i keep my protein interesting. oh yea, me too. i have cheese and uh these herbs.

p3 snacks. the more interesting way to get your protein. ♪ applebee's bigger, bolder grill combos. now that's eatin good in the neighborhood. i switched. we switched. i switched to chevy.

i switched to chevy. we switched to chevy. we switched for value. for family. for power. it was time to upgrade. i switched from ram to chevy. see why people are switching to chevy. we love our chevy. i love my malibu. my colorado. my camaro. my traverse. why did we switch? just look at it. ♪ just look at it. title x for affordable natbirth control and reproductive health care. the trump administration just issued a nationwide gag rule. this would dismantle the title x ("ten") program. it means that physicians cannot tell a patient about their reproductive health choices. we have to be able to use our medical knowledge to give our patients the information that they need. the number one rule is do no harm, and this is harm. we must act now. learn more. text titlex to 22422 mno kidding.rd. but moving your internet and tv? that's easy. easy?! easy? easy. because now xfinity lets you transfer

your service online in just about a minute with a few simple steps. really? really. that was easy. yup. plus, with two-hour appointment windows, it's all on your schedule. awesome. now all you have to do is move...that thing. [ sigh ] introducing an easier way to move with xfinity. it's just another way we're working to make your life simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinity.com/moving to get started. the fact that i am here in

place of others from the christie administration and the governor, himself, does not prove my guilt. it only proves that justice is not blind. during the seven-week trial, over and over, we heard the names of many of the governor's closest associates, and we repeatedly heard the name of governor chris christie. how did all these men escape justice? chris christie was allowed, without rebuttal from anyone, to say out of one side of his mouth that i was a low-level staffer, a woman only good enough to plan menus and invite people to events. then say out of the other side of his mouth that i was somehow powerful to shut down the george washington bridge. there is only one person, only one, and he was powerful enough to approve this act. just because someone has the title of governor doesn't give them the right to mislead others. it's dishonorable. and it only shows that person for the coward he is.

you need to know that i will not remain quiet any longer. mr. christie, you are a bully and the days of you calling me a liar and destroying my life are over. the truth will be heard, and for the former governor, that truth will be unescapable regardless of lucrative television deals or even future campaigns. i plan to make sure of that. >> bridget anne kelly speaking on the courthouse steps after receiving a prison sentence yesterday in federal court for her role in the bridgegate scandal that "a," was a sensation a few years ago, "b," was a crime, "c," is going to result in her and bill baroni serving prison time, and "d," it is something that arguably ended the political career of one of the most ambitious and savvy republican politicians of his generation, new jersey governor chris christie. as bridget kelly gets ready to tart serving her federal prison sentence, here's something new to know about how that all went

down. we covered the story extensively around the time that it was unfolding. this is a part of it that i never knew before today. the day the bridge scandal really broke wide open in the press and it, honestly, became clear that people were going to go to jail for this thing, was the day the news broke that bridget kelly had sent this email, "time for some traffic problems in ft. lee." on the same morning that story broke, on that morning, bridget kelly, governor's deputy chief of staff, she was told no nto n come to work. she says that evening she got a phone call from someone that told her that he would be her new lawyer. now, kelly did not name that attorney in court, but she's now willing to say it was this man, walter timpone. now, we have no way to independently verify that it was, indeed, mr. timpone that called bridget kelly at home that night. we'll talk too h her about that just a moment. you should know walter timpone is well known it governor.

a prominent attorney at a law firm with deep ties to christie. the managing partner at timpone firm s served on christie's tea. appoi and on january 8th when this story broke open, this lawyer from within the christie orbit called bridget anne kelly unsolicited to offer to be her lawyer in the then exploding bridgegate scandal which all of a sudden looked like it was very clearly going to be a criminal matter and not just a political scandal. now, she said during her testimony that he told her in that call that he was, "told to contact her. she also testified that he told her that, quote, a job would be found for me, i didn't have to worry about anything and it would be okay. bridget kelly says she greeted that call with relief. she then proceeded as if this was going to be her new lawyer. she told her attorney every

detail about the case. you know, whew, finally somebody i can give all this stuff to. and then lo and behold, she says he quickly turned around and told her he wasn't going to be her lawyer after all. this was after she had given him everything she had to offer related to this scandal. everything she had to say about this scandal. everything she planned to use in her defense. everything that she might be able to testify to when it came to anybody else involved in this scandal. he got all of that from her and then he bailed and told her that he wouldn't be her lawyer after all. little over two weeks after his initial phone call toledger," " out. i have a conflict with the election law enforcement commission which would prohibit me from voting on anything involving a senator, assemblyman, or host of others which would close down the llc, so i'm gone." wouldn't he know about that kind of a conflict before he called brijt kelly in the first place? you would think so.

in any case, you should also know governor chris christie later appointed that same lawyer, walter timpone, to the new jersey state supreme court. at his swearing in ceremony christie said wally timpone quote, had been an extraordinarily good friend, and in the business that i'm in, having an extraordinary friend is a gift. mr. timpone later responded by saying, "the governor has been a loyal friend for 15 years. i just really, really like knowing him." we reached out to now-new jersey state supreme court justice timpone. he had no comment for us. we also reached out to governor christie who did not comment to us on this aspect of the story. and honestly, you know, who knows what happened here. all of these details might be absolutely coincidental. but it goes to show you that sometimes stories like this just don't end with all the small fries going to jail and all the big fish moving on happily. sometimes these stories keep

telling new parts of themselves right to the end and even beyond. joining us here in the studio is bridgeta bridgetanne kelly. she was just sentenced yesterday to 13 months in federal prison. i should tell you, she's appe appealing her decision to the u.s. supreme court. thanks for being with us. >> thank you, rachel. >> i know it takes -- i know it takes courage to come out and talk at this point in your life. i don't really know where to start. let me just ask you first how you are. >> i think i'm in shock. it's been a really long 5 1/2 years. >> uh-huh. >> from going to the initial days of not knowing to what was going to happen to then the investigation to then being indicted and then the trial and then being convicted and then being sentenced for the first time. you know, these are things i never thought in my life i would have to experience and more importantly, i have four children that had to experience them with me. >> uh-huh. >> you know, i can handle a lot of things, but when your life's on the front page of most major

newspapers and you can't go to the grocery store without somebody saying something positive or negative, it was tough. and it was, really, as hard as it was on me, watching my children go through it has been the hardest. >> in terms of that news coverage, i've been a big part of that. i covered the whole scandal way more aggressively than anybody else. >> i know that. >> on tv news. and i'm happy that we did it. i don't have any regrets about our coverage. and i think that we elucidated a lot of stuff about the story -- >> absolutely. >> -- as it was unfolding. have to ask you, now that we're here, if there are any aspects of the way i reported on the story over the years, even the way i explained it tonight, that you disagree with or you want to take me to task on. >> no. when i just met you, i said you've done your homework. you really -- which is great. i mean, it's -- for me, i didn't watch a lot of it. you or anyone else just because it wasn't healthy for me. >> yeah. >> i was living it. and trying to make our life as normal as possible in a very abnormal time. you know, a couple things that

the master report just was not a million dollars, was $11 million. >> $11 million. >> shy of $11 million. a lot of money. >> taxpayer money. >> correct. to basically shame me. it was a year before the me too movement, but if it fell under that, it is absolutely that. what they did to me with that report is sinful. unfortunately, you know, nobody took notes. i mean, there was -- i know you covered this at one point, just because i was then angry, you know, when it was, i believe that, you know, the email -- i know the email came out january 8th. that report, i believe, was issued march 24th. that's a really fast investigation. >> uh-huh. >> of what? >> yeah. >> you know, there was no notes to show for it and whatnot. so that would be the only, you know, thing to me that i think it's important the amount of money that was spent on that. it was -- it was absurd. >> and the -- i mean, aside from what really seemed like extraneo

extraneous perient detail accusing you of complicity in the scandal, personal things going on in your life, i alluded to, is part of the reason nobody took that report seriously. the other reason nobody took it seriously is because it sung the praises of governor christie and didn't just exonerate him, like, literally went out of its way to praise him during the conduct of this thing. you said since your sentencing, there's only one person who could have approved this scheme with the bridge, the only person in a position to do that was governor christie, himself. he has repeatedly denied that he had any prior knowledge of the lane closures. he gave us a statement tonight saying he had no role in authorizing the lane closures, and there's no credible evidence otherwise. what credible evidence do you have to refute him on that? >> it's conversations. i mean, we had -- i let him know -- so david wildstein and the governor go way back. you know, i think high school, 15 years, you knows they were 15 years old when they met. i'm not sure if they're the same age or within a year or two of each other. that relationship between the

governor and david wildstein, you know, exceeded my relationship with either one of them. >> wildstein is one who came up with this whole for the bridge. >> correct. i will be clear. as much as my email, "time for traffic problems in ft. lee," as bad as that looks, if i use the word, traffic study, which is exactly what i believed it to be, i wouldn't be sitting here. i wouldn't be going to jail in, you know, a couple of months. david had said there was going to be major traffic as a result of this study. the logic david gave to me, and i live in new jersey, obviously, and take the bridge often, he explained that the 12 lanes, 3 were for 5% of the traffic coming from ft. lee, and 9 were for 59% 95% of the traffic. so as you mentioned in your beginning, making sure governor christie did well in november with large numbers from all over the state of new jersey was important. and i knew that. that was just everybody in the office knew that. but david was explaining that 95% of the north jersey commuters are going to move faster over the bridge. and that chris christie could

have an event with governor cuomo to tout the success of the study and do it right before the election and show, look at this, look at what i did. so because everything was around making governor christie look better in 2013 -- >> uh-huh. >> -- you know, that's how this all evolved. and everything that was done was about christie looking good in everyone's eyes. >> regardless of the exact phrasing of your email -- >> absolutely. >> -- you clearly knew this was going to destroy ft. lee. this was going to gridlock ft. lee. >> no. i knew there was going to be problems. i didn't know it was going to destroy ft. lee. absolutely not. >> what about the emails you're expressing, oh, is it bad that i'm smiling hearing about the school buses being stuck? i mean, clearly you were aware in advance that there was going to be problems. >> right. >> caused by what you were doing. then you expressed some glee about the consequences of what you did. >> so the port authority existed in the christie administration almost as its own entity. it was its own -- i mean, i don't want to use the word,

patronage pit, but that's essentially what it was. it was a political arm of the governor's office. and i know they're trying to clean it up now, but at the time, it was used as a political machine. so whatever moneys they had to go into communities, they'd make sure it was going in there. so the port authority was allowed to kind of do what they wanted. it was david samson, bill, and david wildstein and they kind of -- >> all appointees of kristchris >> you've broken this down over time. the way the port authority works, the governor of new york gets the executive director appointee, new jersey gets the deputy and chairman of the port authority. >> uh-huh. >> so there were three christie people at the port authority, it was kind of carte blanche. it really was, they -- >> you knew what you were doing was going to hurt ft. lee. >> i knew there was going to be traffic problems. >> why did you express glee about the -- >> it wasn't, so -- >> that i'm smiling? >> i understand. on its face, and if i could

rewrite these, i absolutely would. >> i'm not asking you for why you got in trouble for them. >> no. >> i'm asking you -- >> i was validating david. so i worked in a world full of men and they were very strong and very intimidating men. david liked to be right. and he had said, this was going to cause traffic problems, this was going to be an issue and i validated him. honestly, rachel, if i could go back and rewrite those things, tone and tenor can't be told in a text message. it's one of my biggest regrets, obviously. >> i want to talk to you more about what you said today and the last 24 hours about governor christie, also about this interesting new sequence of events we're talking about with this new jersey supreme court justice. thanks for being with us, bridget anne kelly is our guest. we'll be back with her right after this. ...caused liver damage. epclusa treats all main types of chronic hep c. whatever your type, ask your doctor if epclusa is your kind of cure. i had the common type.

mine was rare. epclusa has a 98% overall cure rate. i just found out about my hepatitis c. i knew for years. epclusa is only one pill, once a day, taken with or without food for 12 weeks. before starting epclusa, your doctor will test if you have had hepatitis b, which may flare up and could cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you have had hepatitis b other liver or kidney problems, hiv or other medical conditions... ...and all medicines you take, including herbal supplements. taking amiodarone with epclusa may cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. common side effects include headache and tiredness ask your doctor today, if epclusa is your kind of cure. ten detailed acts of obstruction of justice. robert mueller's report lays out a roadmap for impeachment proceedings against this president and challenges congress to do its job. i'm tom steyer and we can't let this president

destroy the public trust, break his oath of office and get away with it. congress has to do its job and hold him accountable. please call them at this number. tell them to get going. there's thousands of ingredients out there. the freshest stuff this planet can grow. not buzzword fresh. but, actually fresh-fresh. fresh. at panera, we hand-pick berries at peak-season. use creamy avocado.

cage-free eggs. and a dressing fit for a goddess. oh and every ingredient is 100% clean. come taste what a salad should be. and for your next event big or small, try panera catering. panera. food as it should be. ybut mclaren saw a wayst fto rapidly transform the healthcare industry. by taking the same predictive analytics powered by dell technologies to diagnose their race cars... and applying it to the human body... mclaren can help healthcare professionals provide more personalized solutions, which could in turn support even speedier recoveries.

monitor their blood glucose every day. which means they have to stop. and stick their fingers. repeatedly. today, life-changing technology from abbott makes it possible to track glucose levels. without drawing a drop of blood, again and again. the most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. life. to the fullest. we're back with bridget anne kelly, she was deputy chief of staff to new jersey governor chris christie at the time of the bridgegate scandal. she's just been sentenced to federal prison for her role in h that scandal.

she's appealing her conviction to the u.s. supreme court. bridget, thank you for staying with us. >> thank you. >> so you have now recounted a story in which a lawyer approached you as this scandal was really breaking open. your email, "time for some traffic problems in ft. lee," is in every headline, every newspaper in the country. you get a call from a lawyer that night who says he can represent you. as far as i understand this, correct me if i'm wrong, you share all the relevant details of your case, you share basically what you have to say about the bridgegate matter and then two weeks later, he says, thanks, but i'm not going to represent you anymore, i have a conflict and you never hear from him again. >> so if i could just kind of -- >> please. >> -- explain a little more how that happened. on january 8th, the email came out. i was driving to work. i was told not to come into work. i reached out to all my superiors trying to figure out, like, what's happening, this is insane. >> uh-huh. >> like, it just -- nothing was making sense because conversations prior to that, you know, everything's going to be

fine, you're good, don't worry about it. so things weren't playing out the way i had been told they were expected to. so i didn't go to work that day but i couldn't go home, and because my house was covered with media. i mean, it was -- it was horrible. >> you were national news everywhere in the country. >> yeah. yeah. and so -- not fun. and so i went to my parents' and their house, their whole street was covered. so i called my aunt, i said i need to come to your house, i need to go somewhere, and i was shaking. i mean, i was petrified. i go to my aunt's and my phone's ringing off the hook with all sorts of stuff and my email address, by the way, is on national news. bridgetannekelly@yah bridgetannekelly@yahoo.com. i was getting horrible emails and whatnot. so i get a message from -- i wasn't answering the phone, obviously, because all these numbers. it was 973 morsetown number. i listened to the message and it was, bridget, this is wally timpone, i was told to give you a call, i'm an attorney. there's some people worried about you. we want to make sure you're

okay. please give me a call. so it was early afternoon. so i, you know, go downstairs. i said to my mom and dad, because i'm at my aunt's house now, the kids, we got them home from school and everything. i said, oh, i said, an attorney just called me because i don't know if i need a criminal attorney, i've never -- i've never -- i don't know. and so he said he was a criminal defense attorney. and -- or defense attorney. and i said to my mom, you know, he said on the message that people are worried about me and he was told to give me a call. she goes, uh-huh. you know, just -- mother's intuition. and so i called -- so he must have -- he left another message. i finally called him back and he told me that he had spoken to michelle brown, who was one of the governor's closest associates and that she and others were worried about me and knew i was going to need an attorney. and he'd like to help me out. and so i was like, oh, okay, this is great. i mean, i didn't know.

so i went and met with him a day or two later, i was -- he negotiated the whole -- i wanted to resign because i just -- i thought that i should be afforded that opportunity. >> right, rather than be fired. yep. >> fired. >> they wouldn't let me resign. on the morning of the 9th, i knew then brand-new chief counsel crisper rin know and paul mady now on the 3ud circuit court of peas they called and told me i was terminated and i had to turn off my phone, all that kind of stuff, turn everything in. so then wally said why don't we meet the following day. i think that was a thursday or perhaps it was a friday. it was a friday. so i go down to newark and i meet him. and my brother came with me. my brother said you know, if you were kind of told to give my sister a call, how do we know you have her best interests? promise you i do, i do. i also said to wally, i said i

googled you and you're on the election law enforcement commission. if we have to appear before the legislative committee, how can you represent me. i worked in the legislature. i know what it is. i don't know how anyone could appear in front of the very people you're looking at their reports to see where their money came in, you're going to represent me. it's no problem. don't worry about it. my brother asks that question. attorney/client privilege. assured us we were going to be, i was going to be okay. i was hesitant though because my mom you know, you have that in the back of your head. and so i didn't tell him everything. i told him a lot but not everything. i met with him a second time because i'm still also petrified. i have no idea what's happening. no one's talking to me, no one's calling me back, friends, people that i used the word friend for. i go down another time to see him in his morris town office and my father said one more

time. how do we know, we met with almost all the participants? how do we know you have her best interests? don't worry, she's going to be fine. at that the point i moved to the beach to a friend's house because i wasn't safe and it was horrible. a couple days later, i get -- i don't know if i read it online or i got an e-mail or call from him and he said i'm out. i have this conflict with elect. i said wait, what do you mean? in the meantime, somebody saw it in the press and my ex-husband called me and said listen, i have this firm. that is who i. >> you had raised with him the conflict. >> the first time we spoke. >> in the interim, you met with him and talked about your case and told him about your defense plans. >> i was developing. i was telling him parts of what i, what he was asking. but i was downloading to him. >> why weren't you able to name him during the trial? >> i tried.

>> what do you mean. >> >> i mean i told the story during the trial but every so often you get objected to and then it's sustained. >> and now chris christie named him to be a new jersey supreme court justice. >> correct. >> bridget kelly, former deputy chief of staff to new jersey governor chris christie. you're still in the throes of this. i covered this within an inch of its life including your role in this. i understand why you were convicted and understand why you're fighting it. your decision to keep talking about and elucidate the other parts is brave. >> thank you. take care. thank you so much. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. you might take something for your heart... or joints. but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

my time is thin, but so is my lawn. now there's scotts thick'r lawn 3-in-1 solution. with a soil improver! seed! and fertilizer to feed! now yard time is our time. this is a scotts yard. you won't find relief here. congestion and pressure? go to the pharmacy counter for powerful claritin-d. while the leading allergy spray only relieves 6 symptoms, claritin-d relieves 8, including sinus congestion and pressure. claritin-d relieves more. i get to select my room from the floor plan... free wi-fi... ...and the price match guarantee. so with hilton there is no catch. yeah the only catch is i'm never leaving.

no i'm serious, i live here now. book at hilton.com and get the hilton price match guarantee.

it's kind of unfair that safe drivers have to pay as much for insurance... as not safe drivers! ah! that was a stunt driver. that's why esurance has this drivesense® app. the safer you drive, the more you save. don't worry, i'm not using my phone and talking to a camera while driving... i'm being towed. by the way, i'm actually a safe driver. i'm just pretending to be a not safe driver. cool. bye dennis quaid! when insurance is affordable, it's surprisingly painless. openturning 50 opens theuard. door to a lot of new things... like now your doctor may be talking to you about screening for colon cancer. luckily there's me, cologuard. the noninvasive test you use at home. it all starts when your doctor orders me. then it's as easy as get, go, gone. you get me when i'm delivered... right to your front door

and in the privacy of your own home. there's no prep or special diet needed. you just go to the bathroom, to collect your sample. after that, i'm gone, shipped to the lab for dna testing that finds colon cancer and precancer. cologuard is not right for everyone. it is not for high risk individuals, including those with a history of colon cancer or precancer. ibd, certain hereditary cancer syndromes, or a family history of colon cancer. maybe i'll be at your door soon! ask your doctor if cologuard is right for you. covered by medicare and most major insurers. an unexpected last minute fight has broken out between federal prosecutors and lawyers for maria butina who pled guilty in december to acting as a russian agent in the u.s. while she was networking with the nra and other american conservative circles. fight is about a declaration

from the former assistant director of the counter intelligence division at the fbi, a 20-year veteran, robert anderson. a well-known figure in the world of counter intelligence and fbi. maria beauty tina's lawyer say his declaration what she did and pled to shouldn't be allowed to be part of her sentencing tomorrow. and it's not hard to see why they don't want the judge considering this when the judge hands down her sentence. here's a little sample of what anderson has to say. "as part of its larger efforts to the target the u.s., russia engaged and continues to engage in spot and assess operations. a spot and assess operation is as intelligence operation that seeks to identify individuals who could potentially be recruited as an intelligence asset or source at a later date. in my expert opinion, her activities in the u.s. from 2015 to 2017 fit the classic pattern of a spot and assess operation.

butina collected information about numerous american citizens who she believed had access to and influence was senior levels of the u.s. government and compiled information about these vids in reports that were sent back to a high ranking russian government official. in my expert opinion she provide the russian federation with information that skilled intelligence officers can exploit for years and that may cause significant daniel to the united states." that declaration's description of the counter intelligence threat to the united states from the kinds of operations that russia has been running in this country targeting politically connected people in this country i mean, that is hair raising in part because of what it says about the contacts that maria butina made through the nra and in conservative and republican circles, right? but it's also directly relevant to all of the surreptitious

contacts that russian officials and russian figures made with the trump campaign and with the trump transition and the trump administration. so this declaration about the kinds of harm that can come to the united states when russia builds those kinds of relationships with people associated with u.s. politics particularly when there are surreptitious relationships that is stark stuff at this point given we're seven days out from the redacted mueller report. well, the fight over whether or not that document could be admitted in court was resolved today. that declaration from the former top counter intelligence official at the fbi will be admissible for her sentencing. that means it's possible that we might see that fbi expert actually testify at her sentencing in open court tomorrow. but butina's sentencing hearing is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. in federal district court tomorrow in many d.c. that does it for us tonight. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." >> kind of surreal in the last hour to see b