Tag: governor chris christie
Prosecutors Will Not Pursue Bridgegate Charges Against New Jersey Governor

Prosecutors Will Not Pursue Bridgegate Charges Against New Jersey Governor

(Reuters) – New Jersey prosecutors on Friday said they would not pursue criminal misconduct charges against Governor Chris Christie in connection with the “Bridgegate” scandal.

The Office of the Bergen County Prosecutor said in a letter to a local judge it did not have sufficient evidence to prove allegations that Christie knew about a plot to close lanes at the George Washington Bridge in 2013 in order to punish a local mayor for failing to endorse Christie’s re-election bid.

“The reason is simple, but compelling – that charge cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” the letter said.

Bill Brennan, a retired firefighter and activist who announced he would run for governor this year, filed the citizen complaint against Christie last September.

Two former Christie allies were convicted last year of orchestrating the lane closure plot, and U.S. prosecutors introduced evidence at trial suggesting the governor was at least aware of the scheme. Christie has steadfastly denied that he knew about the closures at the time.

Roy McGeady, a municipal judge in Fort Lee, had found probable cause to allow the case against Christie to proceed after a hearing at which Brennan testified. Christie’s lawyer was not permitted to argue or cross-examine, McGeady said, because the governor was not a defendant until probable cause was established.

Bergen County Superior Court Judge Bonnie Mizdol rejected Christie’s subsequent request to toss the complaint outright. But she agreed with both Christie’s lawyers and county prosecutors that McGeady erroneously denied the governor’s attorney an opportunity to participate.

The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office said in the letter that citizen complaints typically allege minor crimes of which the complainant has personal knowledge. The letter said criminal misconduct was far outside that scope.

“In short, a matter of this gravity should not have been heard by a municipal court judge,” the letter said.

Brian Murray, a spokesman for Christie, applauded the decision on Friday.

“The Governor is gratified that the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office has ended this baseless fiasco began by Mr. Brennan and perpetuated by Judge McGeady,” Murray said in a statement. “It is right and appropriate that this injustice against the Governor is finally over.”

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler)

IMAGE: U.S. Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie looks on at his primary election night party Nashua, New Hampshire, February 9, 2016. REUTERS/Gretchen Ertl

Former Christie Allies Convicted In N.J. ‘Bridgegate’ Trial

Former Christie Allies Convicted In N.J. ‘Bridgegate’ Trial

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two former allies of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were convicted on Friday for their roles in the “Bridgegate” lane closure scandal, following a six-week trial that served to further tarnish the Republican’s damaged reputation.

Bridget Kelly, the governor’s former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were found guilty in Newark federal court on all counts, the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Jersey said on Twitter.

Kelly and Baroni were convicted of fraud, conspiracy and depriving the residents of Fort Lee, New Jersey, of their civil rights.

Christie, who has repeatedly denied any advance knowledge of the scheme, is a top adviser for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

“Let me be clear once again, I had no knowledge prior to or during these lane realignments, and had no role in authorizing them,” Christie said in a statement following the verdict.

“Anything said to the contrary over the past six weeks in court is simply untrue.”

The scandal has dogged Christie, once seen as a rising political star and a potential presidential nominee before his campaign for the White House failed this year.

The two officials were accused of shutting down access lanes at the George Washington Bridge in September 2013 in Fort Lee, New Jersey, creating a massive days-long traffic jam to punish the town’s mayor, Mark Sokolich, for declining to endorse Christie’s reelection campaign.

The bridge, which connect New Jersey to Manhattan, is one of the country’s busiest.

Lawyers for Kelly and Baroni vowed to appeal.

“This is not over,” Michael Critchley, Kelly’s lawyer, said outside the courthouse, with his arm around a weeping Kelly. He said the judge had erred during jury instructions.

Defense lawyers were furious when U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton told jurors during deliberations in response to a question that they could convict Kelly and Baroni on conspiracy even if the act itself was not “intentionally punitive toward Mayor Sokolich.”

Wigenton said prosecutors did not have to prove motive, even though their case had revolved around the political retribution.

“By answering the way you’re answering, you’re directing a verdict of guilty,” an angry Critchley told Wigenton on Tuesday.

Baroni’s lawyer, Michael Baldassare, told reporters on Friday the case was a “disgrace” and said the conviction would be overturned.

“I am innocent of these charges,” a smiling Baroni said.

Kelly and Baroni’s co-conspirator, former Port Authority official and confessed mastermind David Wildstein, pleaded guilty and appeared as the government’s star witness, detailing how the three schemed to pay back Sokolich, a Democrat.

But Wildstein also implicated Christie, saying he and Baroni discussed the lane closures with the governor while they were ongoing. Christie, Wildstein testified, laughed at the notion that Sokolich was frustrated by the traffic.

At the time, Christie was eyeing a presidential run, and his aides believed that securing the backing of Democratic officials would burnish his national reputation, according to trial testimony.

Kelly, who took the stand in her defense, testified she had discussed the lane closures with Christie a month beforehand, though she said she thought at the time they were part of a legitimate traffic study.

Legal experts have said it is unlikely Christie would face any criminal consequences based on the trial testimony.

Kelly and Baroni’s lawyers argued that Wildstein had orchestrated the plot himself and told them he was conducting a traffic study. Wildstein said on the stand the three of them knew all along that the study was a bogus cover story.

Prosecutors showed jurors numerous exchanges that Kelly and Baroni each had with Wildstein, who operated as a liaison between Baroni at the Port Authority and Kelly in the governor’s office.

Those included Kelly’s now-infamous email to Wildstein that prosecutors said launched the scheme, in which she wrote, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by James Dalgleish)

IMAGE: Peter Stevens via Flickr

Investigative Committee Reissues Subpoenas In New Jersey Bridge Case

Investigative Committee Reissues Subpoenas In New Jersey Bridge Case

By Joseph Tanfani, Tribune Washington Bureau

TRENTON, N.J. — A new joint investigations committee began its work Monday, seeking to unravel the mystery of who gave the order for the now-notorious traffic jam in September in the lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge.

The new joint committee reissued the 20 subpoenas that another Assembly panel issued earlier this month, many to top officials in the office of Republican Governor Chris Christie and his appointees at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Democrats in the state Senate and Assembly had started separate investigations before deciding to combine their efforts.

The votes to set up the new committee were unanimous, but that’s where the bipartisan spirit ended. Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, one of four Republicans on the new committee, says he sees no good reason for the investigation — other than to go after Christie.

“There’s been absolutely no credible evidence to support the idea that he was involved,” he said, adding that if there was a crime, federal prosecutors are already on the case; if the goal is reform of the port authority, the authority doesn’t need an expensive investigation. “That would lead to the impression that the direction here is less investigatory than partisan,” he said.

Republicans repeatedly tried to set boundaries on the committee’s activities but were rebuffed by Democrats, who said they never could have guessed last fall that the email trail about the lane closures would have led to Christie’s office, with a message from his now-fired deputy chief of staff: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, a Democrat whose district includes Fort Lee, said the committee had no plans right now to look into other matters, such as the Hoboken mayor’s allegations that Christie’s top officials used recovery funds from Superstorm Sandy to try to strong-arm her into backing a development deal. But Weinberg wouldn’t rule it out, either.

“We will go wherever those documents take us,” she said. “I’m not going to make any guesses whether it leads us to Hoboken or any other towns in the state of New Jersey.”

The subpoenas ask for documents by February 3.

Other investigations are now probing the same territory.

The U.S. attorney’s office — where Christie made his political reputation as a corruption-fighting prosecutor — has been interviewing witnesses and issuing its own subpoenas. Last week, the law firm of Patton Boggs, hired to represent the Christie for Governor campaign and the New Jersey Republican State Committee, confirmed that the two organizations had also received subpoenas from the U.S. attorney’s office seeking evidence related to the bridge.

As the investigation has widened, other figures in the scandal have also brought high-powered legal talent on board. The chairman of the port authority, David Samson, has hired Michael Chertoff, former Homeland Security chief, and Angelo Genova, a prominent Democratic lawyer in New Jersey who specializes in election law. Christie has hired Randy Mastro, a former federal prosecutor now in the New York office of Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

The state investigative committee hired Reid Schar, a former federal prosecutor who prosecuted former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

AFP Photo/Eric Thayer

Poll: Christie’s Popularity Slips, Big Majority Doubts Governor Is Being Honest

Poll: Christie’s Popularity Slips, Big Majority Doubts Governor Is Being Honest

In a major warning sign to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R), a new USA Today/Pew Research Center poll shows the Republican’s popularity slipping – even outside the tri-state area.

The embattled governor is currently facing questions over his possible involvement in or knowledge of lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in September and his use – or misuse – ofSuperstorm Sandy relief funds during his 2013 re-election campaign.

The poll finds that although 38 percent of Americans say they have a favorable view of Christie – as opposed to the 40 percent who said the same a year ago – 34 percent now view him unfavorably. That’s double the number that said the same last year.

USA Today points out that the jump in people who view Christie unfavorably may be because “many more of those interviewed had heard of Christie” this year than last year. Back in 2013, 26 percent of respondents said they had not heard of Christie, but only 16 percent say the same today.

This might be bad news for the governor who was considered by many as the GOP’s best bet for 2016; whatever nationwide attention he has recently garnered has primarily been focused on the scandals plaguing his administration.

Another red flag for the presidential hopeful is the decline in his popularity among Democrats and Independents. Part of Christie’s appeal – and sometimes a subject of attack from the far right – is his perceived ability to work with Democrats. Independents – 47 percent of whom now hold an unfavorable opinion of the governor – are also important if Christie chooses to run as a moderate in 2016.

The poll also shows that 45 percent of Americans have “heard a lot” about the “Bridgegate” scandal, and another 28 percent say they know “a little” about it. Of those who know about the scandal, only 32 percent believe Christie’s claim that he played no role in and was unaware of the lane closures that caused major traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey – where the mayor, Mark Sokolich (D), declined to endorse Christie for reelection.

Only 27 percent of Americans say they do not know anything about the bridge scandal.

For now Christie’s only hope seems to be a conclusion to the ongoing investigations – one that proves he did not prioritize politics over his duties as governor.

Photo: Bob Jagendorf via Flickr