Unanimous Supreme Court throws out 'Bridgegate' convictions
The justices said there was evidence of deception, corruption, and abuse of power in the political payback saga that involved four days of traffic jams on the world's busiest motor-vehicle bridge, the
In the end, the justices concluded that the government had overreached in prosecuting
The court’s decision to side with Kelly and Baroni continues a pattern from recent years of restricting the government’s ability to use broad federal laws to prosecute public corruption cases. In 2016, the court overturned the bribery conviction of former
Kagan wrote for the court that Kelly and Baroni had acted for “no reason other than political payback.” In devising the traffic jam, they were seeking to punish the Democratic mayor of
To create chaos, on the traffic-heavy first day of school in 2013, Kelly and Baroni schemed to reduce from three to one the number of dedicated lanes onto the bridge from
Kagan said that Kelly and Baroni ”jeopardized the safety of the town’s residents," and she repeated some of their gleeful plotting in the decision. At one point, Kelly wrote what Kagan called “an admirably concise e-mail” about the plan. It read: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” Later, after the traffic snarls began, Kelly wrote in a text, “Is it wrong that I am smiling?” Kagan noted that they then “merrily kept the lane realignment in place for another three days.”
"But not every corrupt act by state or local officials is a federal crime. 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,” wrote Kagan. She grew up in
Christie, in a statement following the high court’s ruling, called the prosecutions of his former allies a “political crusade” against his administration, and lashed out at prosecutors and the
“As many contended from the beginning, and as the Court confirmed today, no federal crimes were ever committed in this matter by anyone in my Administration. It is good for all involved that today justice has finally been done,” Christie wrote.
Christie denied knowing about the plan for gridlock ahead of time or as it was unfolding, but trial testimony contradicted his account and the scandal helped derail his presidential bid. On Thursday, he wrote that the prosecutions “cost the taxpayers millions in legal fees and changed the course of history.”
President
Nothing in Kagan's opinion suggested there was any misconduct by prosecutors.
The
Former
In a statement, Kelly said the justices' decision “gave me back my name and began to reverse the six-and-a-half-year nightmare that has become my life.” Kelly did not ultimately serve any prison time but had been weeks from beginning a 13-month sentence when the
Baroni served about three months of an 18-month sentence before he was released after the high court agreed to weigh in.
"I have always said I was an innocent and today, the
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