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Cuomo Should Resign After Sworn 'Bridgegate' Testimony, Says Astorino

This story has been updated.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino called on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to resign on Wednesday following testimony that they conspired to end an investigation of the 2013 Bridgegate scandal.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino called on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to resign on Wednesday following testimony that they conspired to end an investigation of the 2013 Bridgegate scandal.

Photo Credit: Tom Auchterlonie

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino asked for the resignations of both New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday based on new sworn statements from an ex-Christie crony.

Astorino said the two governors conspired to end an investigation of the 2013 lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, nicknamed "Bridgegate."

"They should resign their offices for the parts they played here," Astorino said in this statement.

A Cuomo spokesman issued this reaction to Daily Voice: “Rob Astorino’s cheap publicity stunt is tethered to the hearsay testimony of a felon that even he admitted today doesn’t know to be true. It’s not."

Cuomo and Christie agreed to falsely explain Bridgegate as a traffic study to try to put an end to the widening controversy, according to news reports of testimony from David Wildstein, a former Christie administration official at the Port Authority.

Astorino said he suspects a broader scheme, saying Cuomo shut down New York's end of the Bridgegate investigation in exchange for Christie's non-support of the Westchester Republican when he challenged Cuomo in 2014. Christie was head of the head of the Republican Governors Association at the time.

"The 2014 New York governor’s race is ancient history," Astorino said in a press statement. "But the political deals and possible conspiracy that went on during that race between Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie — then the head of the Republican Governors Association — is only now coming into the clear light of day for everyone to see.

"If true, the mutual re-election assistance pact between Govs. Christie and Cuomo — one Democrat and one Republican — was grossly unethical and possibly illegal. Both men have lost their moral authority to lead. They should resign their offices for the parts they played here."

Wildstein, who admitted to masterminding the bridge fiasco, testified during the trial of two ex-Christie aides, saying Cuomo helped in the cover-up as it was unfolding.

Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi added: "Astorino should focus on his day job, but while he’s in Manhattan, maybe he can enlighten New Yorkers on the status of the federal investigation into his administration and its links to central figures in the NYPD scandal."

Cuomo, responding to a request from Christie, told the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge, to “stand down” in trying to publicly blame the lane closings on New Jersey officials until Christie had won re-election in November 2013, according to a The New York Times report.

The Port Authority's executive director, Patrick J. Foye, was supposed to sign off on the plan. Instead, Foye ordered GWB lanes reopened upon learning about the shutdown four days after it began.

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