Aide to Former NJ Gov Christie Sentenced to 13 Months for Role in Bridgegate Scandal

Bridget Kelly, a former aide to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was sentenced to 13 months in prison on Wednesday for her role in the infamous Bridgegate scandal.

By: Harry Cherry

Mrs. Kelly, while being sentenced in a federal courtroom in Newark, Delaware, asked the judge presiding over her case to consider the impact that a prison term would have on her children — adding that Judge Susan Wigenton should sentence her to home confinement.

“I do ask you today to consider what my four children have been through over the past five years,” Mrs. Kelly said Wednesday to Judge Wigenton.

Bill Baroni, a former aide to Governor Christie, who federal prosecutors said was a co-conspirator in Bridgegate — where certain officials tried to cause traffic jams near a bridge, in an attempt to damage a local mayor who refused to endorse Mr. Christie’s re-election bid.

Michael Critichley, an attorney to Mrs. Kelly, asked Judge Wigenton to consider to “emotional and psychological effects,” imposed on Mrs. Kelly and her family, according to The Associated Press.

“The shrapnel of Bridgegate that affects the Kelly family is embedded,” Mr. Critichley said on Wednesday. “It’s gonna be there forever.”

Mr. Critchley also questioned why former Governor Chris Christie was not indicted in the scandal.

“The boys of Bridgegate are doing fine,” he said, adding that “reputationally, they’re doing fine.”

“In August 2013, after Kelly confirmed that Mayor Sokolich would not be endorsing Gov. Christie for re-election in November 2013, Baroni, Kelly, and Wildstein decided to punish the mayor by deliberately causing significant traffic problems in Fort Lee under the false pretense of a traffic study,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna said recently in a statement. “From the morning of Sept. 9, 2013, to Sept. 13, 2013, they caused the local access lanes to be reduced so that only one toll booth, instead of the usual three, was accessible to the approach to the bridge for local traffic traveling through Fort Lee.”

“To maximize the congestion and the punitive impact on Mayor Sokolich, Baroni, Kelly and Wildstein caused these lane and toll booth reductions to start on the first day of the school year without any advance notice to Mayor Sokolich, the Fort Lee chief of police or borough residents,” Mr. Khanna continued. “The lane and toll booth reductions resulted in significant traffic in Fort Lee, for motorists intending to access the George Washington Bridge from local lanes and for residents, whose streets were choked with traffic.”