Christie ally pleads guilty; two more indicted in bridge scandal

Michael Symons, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Indictments, guilty plea in 'Bridgegate' scandal case Two people were indicted and one person entered a guilty plea in the George Washington Bridge Case. In 2013, several lanes were closed causing traffic problems in Fort Lee, NJ in an apparent ploy to get back at Gov. Chris Christie.

TRENTON — David Wildstein, a former aide to Gov. Chris Christie, pleaded guilty Friday to charges related to the closing of lanes over a Hudson river bridge as a political vendetta against a local mayor for not endorsing the governor for re-election. Two more aides were also charged in the alleged scheme that has tarnished the bid by Christie for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

Indictments unsealed on Friday named Bridget Kelly, former Christie deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the powerful Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that oversees operation of the George Washington bridge, the target of the 2013 lane closures.

Both were also named in federal court Friday by David Wildstein, another former Port Authority executive, under terms of a plea agreement.

Kelly and Baroni are due in court Monday on charges including conspiracy, wire fraud and deprivation of civil rights. The fraud charge alone carries up to 20 years in prison. Their lawyers planned news conferences Friday to discuss the charges.

Wildstein pleaded guilty to one count of a conspiracy to "obtain by fraud, knowingly convert and intentionally misapply property of an organization receiving federal benefits," and one count of a conspiracy against civil rights, by depriving Fort Lee residents the ability to move freely about their borough.

"Public officials must use government resources for proper government purposes," Fishman told reporters, in announcing the charges. "The indictment alleges, and Wildstein admitted, that the three defendants used Port Authority resources to exact political retribution against a public official who would not endorse the Governor for re-election, and concocted and promoted a bogus cover story to execute their plan and to cover their tracks."

Christie has long insisted he knew nothing about the lane-closing plot in advance — and appeared to be in the clear, at least for now.

"Based on the evidence currently available to us, we're not going to charge anyone else in this scheme," Fishman said.

Wildstein, 53, said in answers to U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton's questions that he was aware in 2013 that the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs in Christie's office was pursuing Sokolich's endorsement. When Wigenton asked whether he had spoken around Aug. 12, 2013 with Kelly and Baroni about how the GWB access lanes could be "used as leverage against Mayor Sokolich," he said that was true.

Wildstein told the judge he agreed with Baroni and Kelly in August 2013 to punish Sokolich by reducing two of the three local access lanes connecting Fort Lee traffic with the bridge. He said they agreed to a "cover story of a traffic study," that they agreed no advance notice would be given to Fort Lee officials or residents and that any questions from the borough would be ignored, what they dubbed "radio silence."

Wildstein, in answering Wigenton's questioning, agreed that the date for the closure was chosen "to maximize the traffic congestion in Fort Lee" on the first days of the school year.

Raw: Ex-Christie Ally pleads guilty David Wildstein, a former political ally of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, pleaded guilty Friday for his role in politically motivated traffic tie-ups near the George Washington Bridge in 2013. (May 1)

Wildstein, at the time, was acting in his capacity at the time as executive for the powerful Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Wildstein's attorney, Alan Zegas, said his client has been cooperating with the government for some time.

"He deeply regrets what occurred," Zegas said, according to NJ.com. "He can't undo what was done."

The guilty plea dealt a fresh political blow to the Republican governor, who has fallen in some polls from front runner for the GOP nomination for president to also-ran. While Christie has maintained he is still deciding whether to run for the White House, the political realities suggested that the decision has appeared to hinge partly on who, if anyone, was indicted in the bridge scandal and for what.

"There is nothing in today's news that differs in any material way form what we reported more than a year ago when we issued the findings of our investigation of the GW Bridge lane realignment," Randy Mastro, the lawyer who headed up Christie's independent investigation, said in a statement Friday. "We concluded then and it remains the case today, that neither Governor Chrisite nor anyone else who remained on his staff had any involvement in or prior knowledge of the lane realignment. "

Mastro said that the governor's investigation pointed to the three individuals now charged in the chase.

"Today's announcement confirming what we reported more than a year ago is a welcome affirmation of our findings," Mastro said.

In the fall of 2013, the bridge scandal appeared to be just another hapless traffic jam in Fort Lee at the George Washington Bridge, which spans the Hudson River and connect New Jersey to New York.

While the traffic jams lasted four days, the fallout would eventually ensnare key operatives in the Christie administration and divert attention from a host of pressing New Jersey business, from slow recovery after Sandy to slack economic performance.

For most, the bridge scandal began quietly, without notice, and was over before most anyone could understand what happened — not the least being those who were caught in the traffic nightmare. In fact, the lane closures took place two months before Christie's 2013 re-election, but weren't immediately even local news, let alone national headlines.

It took until the fourth day of the closures for The Record newspaper to ask the Port Authority what was happening; that inquiry alerted authority Executive Director Patrick Foye, an appointee of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

He put a stop to the operation the next morning, apparently angering some New Jersey officials, according to subsequently released emails.

Correspondence that emerged as the scandal unfolded showed that New Jersey staffers kept the operation secret from New York officials; Wildstein told the bridge's managers and Port Authority police not to alert local officials in Fort Lee. Similarly, Wildstein's boss, deputy executive director Bill Baroni, wouldn't respond to Fort Lee's cries for help.

Most damning was an email from Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's deputy chief of staff. Her August 2013 email to Wildstein apparently set the closures in motion, stating that it was "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

After Christie won re-election in a landslide, hearings by the New Jersey Assembly's transportation committee began to show the scope of the scandal. Baroni testified that the closures had been part of a traffic study that was fumbled by the authority. Foye contradicted him, testifying there was no such study.

The real breakthrough came in the emails and texts the committee received, through a subpoena, from Wildstein, who at that point had lost his Port Authority job, as had Baroni. The trove revealed that the Christie operates engineered the traffic jams under the guise of the debunked traffic study.

Those revelations renewed the Legislature's interest and drew the attention of federal and Manhattan prosecutors, who began investigating the lane closure and then other matters related to Port Authority business and officials. The Securities and Exchange Commission investigated the Port Authority's financing of the Pulaski Skyway replacement.

David Samson, a longtime confidante of Christie, attracted attention in the early going. Newspaper articles detailed potential conflicts of interest in votes he took as Port Authority chairman — on measures that seem to have benefited clients of his private law firm, Wolff & Samson. He retired from the firm last month, and the firm took the unusual step of changing its name.

Stanglin reported from McLean, Va.