Washington — The Supreme Court on Thursday reversed the convictions of two former aides to ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in a case stemming from the 2013 scheme to close lanes to the George Washington Bridge to punish a political opponent, a saga that came to be known as “Bridgegate.”
The court ruled unanimously in the case involving Bridget Kelly and William Baroni, who were convicted by a jury in 2016 on federal charges of fraud and conspiracy. Justice Elena Kagan delivered the opinion for the court, which held that because the lane closure scheme didn’t aim to obtain money or property, Baroni and Kelly couldn’t have violated federal fraud laws.
“For no reason other than political payback, Baroni and Kelly used deception to reduce Fort Lee’s access lanes to the George Washington Bridge — and thereby jeopardized the safety of the town’s residents. But not every corrupt act by state or local officials is a federal crime,” Kagan wrote. “Because the scheme here did not aim to obtain money or property, Baroni and Kelly could not have violated the federal-program fraud or wire fraud laws.”
The justices heard arguments in the case in January, during which they weighed whether the convictions of Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, and Baroni, former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, should stand.
The two, with the assistance of a third official, ordered the closure of lanes to the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee, New Jersey, into Manhattan as political retaliation against the town’s mayor. The lane closures caused nightmarish traffic delays for days on the most heavily trafficked bridge in the world.
During arguments, the justices considered whether the actions of Kelly and Baroni constituted property fraud under federal statutes since they lied to reallocate the bridge lanes when they lacked authorization to change traffic patterns.
Prosecutors said Kelly and Baroni schemed to close lanes by concocting a fictitious traffic study as justification for the lane realignment. The closures were actually meant to punish the mayor of Fort Lee, who had declined to endorse Christie’s 2013 reelection bid.
“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Kelly wrote in an infamous email about the change in traffic flow.
Kelly and Baroni were convicted by a federal jury in 2016 on property fraud and civil rights charges, the latter of which were tossed out by a federal appeals court. Kelly was sentenced to 13 months in prison and Baroni received 18 months. Christie was not charged in the scandal, which came to be known as “Bridgegate,” and said he was not involved. But in its wake, his approval ratings plummeted and his prospects in the 2016 Republican presidential race were severely diminished.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions, ruling that the two aides defrauded the Port Authority of its property by lying about the fake traffic study to justify the traffic realignment.
Kelly appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, and the high court agreed to take up the case last year.
