Metro

Fired-up Christie rips ex-aide Kelly

Asked for the first time at a town-hall meeting about the George Washington Bridge, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday the aide he fired for lying about her involvement would have been dismissed even if she had told the truth.

The aide, Bridget Anne Kelly, was let go in January after e-mails revealed she set a traffic-jam plot in motion with an e-mail saying, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” apparently for retribution against the city’s Democratic mayor who didn’t endorse the Republican governor.

“There were lots of reasons for the firing,” Christie told a crowd at the Flemington town hall. “If she had told me the truth, she would have been fired too, because of what she did.

“What happened was absolutely unacceptable,” Christie added.

“I didn’t know anything about it and if I had, I wouldn’t have permitted it.”