NEWARK — The man who has admitted orchestrating the mysterious lane closings at the George Washington Bridge in 2013 testified on Tuesday that he was told that Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York had agreed to falsely explain the closings as part of a traffic study to try to “put an end” to a growing scandal surrounding them.  The confessed culprit, David Wildstein, testified that he had heard from two top Christie appointees at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge, that the governors had hoped to stop the catastrophic traffic jams caused by the lane closings from hurting Mr. Christie’s re-election campaign.  Mr. Wildstein, who is cooperating with federal prosecutors in the trial of two former Christie aides accused of approving and directing the lane-closing scheme, agreed that Mr. Cuomo had told the Port Authority’s executive director to “stand down” from trying to publicly blame Mr. Christie and his aides for the closings, at least until Mr. Christie had won re-election in November 2013.  A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo issued a statement sternly denying that the governor and Mr. Christie had discussed a false story and denouncing Mr. Wildstein’s motivations.  Mr. Christie, a Republican, and Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, have previously denied that such a conversation occurred. Both have said they had no role in covering up the cause of the lane closings.  The testimony by Mr. Wildstein, a former Christie administration official at the Port Authority, left open the possibility that Mr. Cuomo did not know the true reason for the closings. Mr. Wildstein has said they were meant to punish a mayor who did not endorse Mr. Christie’s re-election.  But Mr. Wildstein testified previously that Mr. Christie knew about the closings and their punitive intent as they happened, and that the governor laughed when he heard about the traffic jam and that the mayor’s calls about public safety risks were being ignored.  On Tuesday, his seventh day on the witness stand, Mr. Wildstein was cross-examined by a lawyer for Bridget Anne Kelly, a former deputy chief of staff to Mr. Christie who is on trial with Bill Baroni, Mr. Christie’s former top staff appointee at the Port Authority.  Mr. Wildstein testified that top officials in the governor’s office and David Samson, Mr. Christie’s appointee as Port Authority chairman, had decided that New Jersey officials at the agency would write a report trying to legitimize the traffic study story. The report, Mr. Wildstein said, would seek to dismiss the mayor’s complaints by saying there had been a “failure of communication.”  Mr. Christie’s office would review the report, he said, and the authority’s executive director, Patrick J. Foye, appointed by Mr. Cuomo, would approve it.  Mr. Foye had ordered the lanes reopened when he learned about the shutdown four days after it began and had never been a fan of Mr. Wildstein. Mr. Foye knew the lane closings were not related to a traffic study, and at least one of his staff members had called reporters to say so, generating intense coverage of the closings and why they happened.  But Mr. Foye agreed to sign off on the report, Mr. Wildstein said in court on Tuesday, as long as New Jersey took responsibility.  “My understanding at the time was that this would put an end to this issue,” Mr. Wildstein testified, referring to the report by the two governors.  “Pat Foye would sign off on a false report?” Ms. Kelly’s lawyer, Michael Critchley, asked him.  “Yes, sir, that was my understanding,” Mr. Wildstein said.  “And that was a result of conversations with Cuomo and Christie?” Mr. Critchley said.  “Yes, sir,” Mr. Wildstein said.  Mr. Cuomo’s office, Mr. Wildstein said, had told Mr. Foye to “lay off Christie.”  Mr. Wildstein, who has pleaded guilty to his role in the lane closings, acknowledged that his account was secondhand. He said he had heard about the conversations from Mr. Samson and Mr. Baroni.  Mr. Cuomo’s office on Tuesday denied that any such conversation had taken place.  “Whatever the admitted Bridgegate architect thought or dreamt about New York’s involvement has no basis in fact,” John P. L. Kelly, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, said in a statement. “Anyone can say anything, especially a convicted felon spinning a tale, but it’s just false and delusional.”  No report was ever issued. Federal prosecutors and Mr. Wildstein have said that was because Mr. Baroni was asked to give testimony to a New Jersey legislative committee, and he read a version of the report there.  Mr. Wildstein also testified that Mr. Baroni told him that Kevin O’Dowd, Mr. Christie’s chief of staff, had had a conversation with his counterpart in Mr. Cuomo’s office, Lawrence S. Schwartz, in which they agreed that Mr. Foye, who had also been invited to testify at that hearing, would not.  Mr. Wildstein said he was also told by Mr. Christie’s spokesman, Michael Drewniak, that he had briefed Mr. O’Dowd on what New Jersey officials took to be Mr. Foye’s meddling in their business.  Ms. Kelly’s lawyer asked what that meant.  “That Governor Christie was in the middle of an election, that Mr. Foye was becoming involved and could potentially hurt Governor Christie, and that Mr. O’Dowd now understood and had reached out to Albany to get Foye to back off,” Mr. Wildstein replied.  Mr. Foye did not testify at the legislative hearing, but later accepted another invitation to speak to the Legislature.  Eric Corngold, a lawyer for Mr. Foye, said on Tuesday that “Mr. Wildstein’s testimony on this topic is not accurate.”  “Mr. Foye never had any such conversations or was given any such direction by the governor or any of his staff,” Mr. Corngold continued.  The day after Mr. Christie won re-election, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Wildstein had been behind the order to close the lanes. Mr. Wildstein testified that he believed Mr. Cuomo’s direction to “stand down,” as Mr. Critchley said, did not extend past Election Day.  “I did not believe it was a coincidence that I had been told that Governor Cuomo had spoken to Mr. Foye during the election campaign and then suddenly comments from Mr. Foye went away,” Mr. Wildstein said, “and the day after the election a reporter called the Port Authority, called me, to talk about my involvement.”  An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname, in some instances, of a defense lawyer in the trial of two former aides to Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. He is Michael Critchley, not Critchely.  Jesse McKinley contributed reporting from Albany.  A version of this article appears in print on October 5, 2016, on page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Witness Connects Cuomo to Bridge Case Cover-Up. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
David Wildstein testified that the governors agreed to issue a report falsely citing a traffic study for closing access lanes to the George Washington Bridge; a Cuomo aide denied the account.