Posted on 05/07/2020 11:25:12 AM PDT by bryan999
The Supreme Court on Thursday threw out the convictions of two key players in the so-called Bridgegate case that rocked the administration of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Bridget Anne Kelly, a former Christie aide, and Bill Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the George Washington Bridge, were found guilty in 2016 after a jury determined that they had shut down two of three lanes leading to the bridge, resulting in a monumental traffic jam in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Prosecutors said Kelly and Baroni ordered the shutdown to punish the mayor of Fort Lee after he refused to support Christie's re-election campaign.
In a unanimous opinion by Justice Elana Kagan, a New York City native, the court said federal prosecutors wrongly charged the two officials with violating laws that target fraudulent schemes for obtaining property. Realigning the bridge traffic was an exercise of regulatory power, not an attempt to get money or property, the court said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Chris Christie has got to be “jumping” for joy!
Unanimous! Excellent...
What the ‘rats and the ‘rat media did to Christie was their practice run to what they did to Trump
Remember that people
Bridgegate=Russiagate=FAKE
Chris Christie has got to be “jumping” for joy!
Earthquake!
The moron in the case is the guy who pled guilty. LOL.
I felt it.
My take: good. But with our constitutional rights being trampled all over the country as we speak, was this really where they needed to focus? There are cases filed in the system now, couldn’t they have escalated some of them rapidly?
The start of the decision is a pretty good summary
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-1059_e2p3.pdf
During former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s 2013 reelection campaign, his Deputy Chief of Staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, avidly courted Democratic mayors for their endorsements, but Fort Lee’s mayor refused to back the Governor’s campaign.
Determined to punish the mayor, Kelly, Port Authority Deputy Executive Director William Baroni, and another Port Authority official, David Wildstein, decided to reduce from three to one the number of lanes long reserved at the George Washington Bridge’s toll plaza for Fort Lee’s morning commuters.
To disguise their efforts at political retribution, Wildstein devised a cover story: The lane realignment was for a traffic study.
As part of that cover story, the defendants asked Port Authority traffic engineers to collect some numbers about the effect of the changes. At the suggestion of a Port Authority manager, they also agreed to pay an extra toll collector overtime so that Fort Lee’s one remaining lane would not be shut down if the collector on duty needed a break. The lane realignment caused four days of gridlock in Fort Lee, and only ended when the Port Authority’s Executive Director learned of the scheme. Baroni and Kelly were convicted in federal court of wire fraud,fraud on a federally funded program or entity (the Port Authority), and conspiracy to commit each of those crimes. The Third Circuit affirmed.
Held: 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.
And the end of the decision is
“We therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. “
Which I assume means they can retry them with the correct charges this time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.