still, though, governor christie found phil kwon a very soft

that's phil kwon on the right side of your screen. that's phil kwon, longtime chris christie ally. his nominee for the new jersey supreme court. his appointee to the port authority after more than a decade of them working together. that is phil kwon attending the testimony before the new jersey legislature in which another chris christie nominee to the port authority told the legislature a false cover story about why access lanes were shut on to the george washington bridge in a way that gridlocked the town of ft. lee. the access lanes to that bridge were not shut down because of a traffic study. and you can kind of tell at the time that they were telling that cover story that something was wrong with the story. that there was no traffic study. and maybe you could only tell that because nobody at this hearing before the legislature where they're talking answer this study, nobody actually seemed to be able to produce this supposed study. if it's a study, it doesn't just happen in your head, right? you document it in some way. so that was a key moment at this testimony when it starte

phil kwon is in the green tie. this is bill baroni who since resigned from the port authority, testifying to the new jersey legislature as phil kwon looks on, testifying to the legislature at length about a supposed traffic study. the traffic study was the cover story that was cooked up to cover up what actually happened to those bridge lanes and this was bill baroni delivering that false cover story to the legislature in november and it was philip kwon who the "wall street journal" says spent part of four to five days preparing bill baroni to give that ultimately false testimony. the port authority for their part contest that it was that many days of prep but they do not contest it was phil kwon who prepped bill baroni for the testimony which we now know to be false. why did phil kwon do that? why was it him specifically assigned to do it? and did he know it was false testimony that he was preparing bill baroni to give to the legislature? did he know it was a cover story? there's all this focus nationally on gover

christie subsequently appointed phil kwon to be a lawyer at the port authority.re the "wall street journal" reports today that he spent days preparing bill baroni for his legislative testimony on the george washington bridge lane closures, testimony that is now known to have been untrue and misleading. joining us now is the co-chair of the new jersey assembly select committee's investigation into this matter, assemblyman john wisniewski. thanks for being here. >> good to be back. >> bill baroni gave you two hours of testimony on the closure of those bridge lanes. i reread all of that testimony today and looked back at some of that tape. he said it was all to do with a traffic study. is it clear to you that was inaccurate testimony? >> it as inaccurate testimony. there was no traffic study. pat foye in his testimony denied the existence of a traffic study. the documents we've received from the people we've previously submitted show there was no photographic study. it seems to be some type of cover story. >> if the "wall street journal's" reporting is accurate, tha

phil kwon and at least one other attorney was recommended for jobs at the port authority.people who moved from the christie administration to the legal department within the port authority. >> and then once in the legal department for whatever reason were tasked with prepping mr. baroni for his false testimony about the traffic study. you see why this story makes me so crazy. let me just ask you one last question, shawn, in terms of what happens -- what happens next. and what happens with governor christie as he's trying to govern the state while also managing this fallout. the timeline about the governor's involvement, his knowledge of what happened, what he -- who he tasked to do what when in terms of responding to it. his earlier denials versus his later admissions. in terms of what the way his staff was involved. do you get the sense that those matters are now settled or do they continue to evolve? i know at the "record" you've been trying to track the evolution of his statements. do you get the sense we've now got a firm timeline from him? >> we do have firm dates on

can you give us insight into who phil kwon is and howchristie? >> he was a former nominee to the supreme court. he was not approved for that position and then appointed by christie to a position as an attorney in the legal deparent of the port authority. this is a legal department that has several attorneys. it's a large legal staff. phil kwon and at least one other attorney was recommended for jobs at the port authority. so these are people who moved from the christie administration to the legal department within the port authority. >> and then once in the legal department for whatever reason were tasked with prepping mr. baroni for his false testimony about the traffic study. you see why this story makes me so crazy. let me just ask you one last question, shawn, in terms of what happens -- what happens next. and what happens with governor christie as he's trying to govern the state while also managing this fallout. the timeline about the governor's involvement, his knowledge of what happened, what he -- who he tasked to do what when in terms of

it's interesting they're looking a the that specifically because one of the people on that list is phil kwon who is an attorney now with the port authority. if you remember, he was the governor's nominee to the supreme court, shot down by the democratic legislature. so he was the one who actually prepped baroni for the testimony or so it's been reported. i think it's interesting they're zeroing in on that to try to find out, you know, sort of a way to back into this, the way i see it. you know, if the governor says we didn't know anything about it but then they find out they were helping baroni prep for this testimony which we've come to find out was basically untrue, you know, that's a kind of way to back in to find out who knew what, when and where. >> it's interesting it's phil kwon, who, again, the port authority doesn't deny was involved in prepping mr. baroni for that testimony. contact with mr. baroni ahead of the testimony, the governor's office more broadly and a huge, long list of people in the port authority and the governor's office including, like, assistants and people who don'

so when chris christie got there, when he got to the prosecutor's office, phil kwon was already workinghere.

so we know that they sent subpoenaed to phil kwon, as you said, they have also subpoenaed a number of people in the governor's office. they're trying to figure out who from christie's staff was involved in this. >> let me go to mr. ingle now. it seems to me a question that obtains or arises on the horizon here, if it was a crime to deliberately cause trouble on that bridge, and it looks to me like it may well be, you're certainly putting people in jeopardy on purpose for political reasons, then there is the question of what is a cover-up. ate crime then to say oh it was some alibi. it had something to do with a study knowing that that was infected that that wasn't the truth. there was no traffic study and in fact it was a coaching job by mr. kwon of mr. baroni. and that's what they're looking at in terms of these subpoenas. that's what they're going after. >> well, you know, the cover-up is always worse than whatever it is they're trying to cover up. that's definitely what they think. that's why they're going for this. the other thing is when bill baroni testified, he really irked a l

wall street journal" says that baroni was prepped for that hearing by a port authority lawyer named phil kwonand kwon is the same man the governor once nominated to serve on the state supreme court. the port authority official ordered the closures, david wildstein, was allegedly also there for that prep. wildstein's lawyers says, quote, the counseling was conducted over a period of four or five days, and mr. wildstein was present for much of it. so governor, these are a lot of christie allies all together in one place. does it seem as if the circle is tightening around governor christie himself? >> sure there are now seven or eight significant allies of the governor who knew about the lane closings, and none of them told the governor? none of them went to the governor and said is this okay? none of them when they saw it was blowing up and causing public safety danger? none of them went to the governor or alerted them about it? it's just not credible. it's not believable. that's the problem the governor has here. >> governor rendell, thank you for your time tonight. >> my pleasure. >>> still a

citing unnamed officials, "the wall street journal," phil kwon spent parts of four to five days helping prepare the testimony bill baroni gave to the legislature which we know was a false cover story. the port authority for their part are denying it was five hole days. they're saying that kind of preparation before testimony is a routine matter and people shouldn't read anything into it. given that testimony turned out to be made up, doesn't that raise real questions about anybody being involved in the preparation of that testimony? who else helped cook up the cover story besides david wildstein and bill baroni? after the cover story was delivered to the legislature, we know that the feedback from trenton from the state capital to bill baroni on how great he did with the cover story was all positives from somebody named bridget, somebody named nicole and somebody named charlie, presumably charlie mckenna, governor christie's chief counsel. people liked how the cover story sounded when it was delivered. reacting positivetively to the cover story once you hear it is one thing. having help