Wildstein could enter guilty plea Thursday in connection with Bridgegate

Former Port Authority official David Wildstein is expected to enter a guilty plea when he appears in Federal Court Friday in connection with the unannounced lane closures in Fort Lee that set off the Bridgegate scandal.

Gov. Chris Christie (L) and David Wildstein (Andrew Burton and William Thomas Cain, Getty Images)

According to a report Wednesday by Bloomberg Business News, grand jurors at the Federal Court in Newark have been hearing testimony in secret for months regarding the gridlock at the George Washington Bridge in September of 2013. A person with knowledge of the situation, who requested anonymity, told Bloomberg that Wildstein "would plead guilty to a charging document known as a criminal information, the person said. It was unclear what the specific charges would be."

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If Wildstein enters a guilty plea, it would be the the first conviction for U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in the Bridgegate investigation. Gov. Chris Christie has continued to maintain that he was unaware of plans to close the lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge.

"Christie has denied knowledge of a plot to close two of the three local-access lanes to the world’s busiest bridge, which is run by the Port Authority. If Wildstein pleads guilty and cooperates with prosecutors, he could give them an inside view of how the plot unfolded," Bloomberg Business reported.

A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, Matt Reilly, said the federal prosecutors' office will not be commenting, according to app.com.

During a press conference Wednesday after signing bills strengthening New Jersey's drug prevention efforts, Christie briefly addressed the Bloomberg report in response to questions from the media.

"That matter will take it's natural course and will be dictated by the folks who are investigating it. I don't have anything to do with that," Christie said Wednesday.

The governor has continued to pledge his cooperation in the investigation. In December

Federal prosecutors and FBI agents investigating Bridgegate questioned Christie for more than two hours. A report by an outside law firm, hired by the governor’s office, said the lane closings appeared to have been instigated by Wildstein and Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly. Kelly was later fired by Christie, who said she had lied about her involvement. Wildstein was forced to resign his Port Authority post.

Speaking with the press Wednesday, Christie said he's not concerned about Wildstein's appearance in court.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with me, so I don’t know why you think I have to deal with it. I don’t," the governor said. "This is all speculation based upon like a four-line story in Bloomberg, so I don’t know. I don’t expect that anything is going to be different than what I said on Jan. 9 because nothing’s been different than what I said on Jan. 9."

The governor said if anything occurs he will respond accordingly.

“We’ll see. Whenever anything does occur, we’ll react to it," Christie said. "But, I know what the truth is, so I’m not the least bit concerned about it.”

Although the independent report indicated that Christie has no involvement in Bridgegate, the scandal has hurt the approval rating of the governor, who continues to mull a run for the White House in 2016.

A Quinnipiac University poll released last week shows that 57 percent of voters don’t think Christie caused Bridgegate, while 32 percent believe he did. However, many think he did know about the plot to cause unannounced lane closures at the George Washington Bridge in September 2013. In fact, 53 percent think he knew about the plot, while 38 percent said he didn’t.

Source: Wildstein could enter guilty plea this week in connection with Bridgegate

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