Fort Lee lane closure scandal
The Fort Lee lane closure scandal, better known as Bridgegate,[1][2] was a political scandal in the U.S. state of New Jersey in 2013 and 2014. It involved a staff member and political appointees of then-governor Chris Christie colluding to create traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey by closing lanes at the main toll plaza[3][4] for the upper level of the George Washington Bridge.[5]
On September 9, 2013, two of three toll lanes for a local street entrance were closed during morning rush hour. Local officials, emergency services, and the public were not notified of the lane closures, which Fort Lee declared a threat to public safety.[6] The resulting gridlock ended when the two lanes were reopened on September 13 by an order from Port Authority Executive Director and Democrat from New York, Patrick Foye. He said that the "hasty and ill-informed decision" could have endangered lives and violated federal and state laws.[7]
It has been suggested that the lanes had been closed to cause the massive traffic problem for political reasons, and especially theorized that they were a retributive attack against Mayor of Fort Lee Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who had not supported Christie as a candidate in the 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election. The ensuing investigations centered on several of Christie's appointees and staff, including[8][9] David Wildstein, who ordered the lanes closed,[10] and Bill Baroni, who had told the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee that the closures were for a traffic study.[11]
An investigation led by U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman[12] resulted in a nine-count indictment against Bridget Anne Kelly, the deputy chief of staff, Baroni and Wildstein.[13] Wildstein entered a guilty plea, and testified against Baroni and Kelly, who were found guilty on all counts in November 2016.[14] David Samson pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy in July 2016, for acts unrelated to the lane closures but unearthed by the federal Bridgegate investigation.[15]
At the time of the scandal, Christie was a leading contender for the 2016 Republican nomination for President.[16][17][18][19] The scandal was widely cited as a major factor in the early demise of Christie's 2016 presidential ambitions, and he dropped out of the race after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary.[20][21][22][23] Christie described the scandal as "a factor" in why he was bypassed by Donald Trump as the vice presidential nominee.[24] Both the prosecution and the defense in the trial of two of Christie's former aides argued that Christie knew of his close associates' involvement in a plan to shut down lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge as it was happening, and that the closings were to punish Sokolich for declining to support Christie's reelection bid.[25] This was the first time Christie had been officially accused of contemporaneous knowledge of the plot.[26]
The defendants in the case appealed their convictions, and in 2019 the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari and heard the case (known as Kelly v. United States) in 2020.[27][28] One defendant, Bill Baroni, having already begun serving his federal prison term, asked for immediate release.[29][30] In May 2020 the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the convictions, judging that the defendants could not have violated the fraud statutes they were charged under since they had not obtained "money or property".[31][32]
Trial of Baroni and Kelly[edit]
Indictments[edit]
On May 1, 2015, the U.S. Attorney unsealed indictments, charging Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly with nine counts of conspiracy, fraud and related charges. These included conspiracy to commit fraud by "knowingly converting and intentionally misapplying property of an organization receiving federal benefits". That same day, prosecutors released David Wildstein's plea bargain. He had agreed in January to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy against civil rights.[215] Wildstein, whose sentencing was delayed until after the trial, agreed to testify against Baroni and Kelly.[216]
The indictments charge that the lane closures were retribution against Sokolich for not endorsing Christie. Fishman said that Wildstein had corroborated the allegations in the indictments,[215] and said that the three officials "agreed to and did use public resources to carry out a vendetta and exact retribution", and that they "callously victimized the people of Fort Lee".[217] Kelly vigorously denied wrongdoing.[218] Baroni argued that his indictment was improperly based on the unsworn testimony and documents he had provided to the legislative committee in 2014, but prosecutors countered that he had not been offered immunity at that time.[219]
The trial for Baroni and Kelly, originally scheduled to begin July 7, 2015, was repeatedly rescheduled, first to November 16, 2015, to allow more time for the defense to review the large volume of documents provided by the prosecutors,[220][221] then to May 16, 2016, and then to September 12, 2016.[222]
Prosecutors asked the court that those documents, about 1.5 million pages, be kept from public view in order to protect the privacy of unindicted co-conspirators, but the defense teams opposed that proposal as overly broad, and preventing collaboration with anyone who could assist but would not be a witness.[223] U.S. District Court Judge Susan Wigenton ruled on July 7 in favor of the prosecutors, writing, "The Confidential Discovery Materials shall not be disclosed by defense counsel to anyone other than the defendants and any agent working at the direction of defense counsel in this matter."[224] thereby preventing public access to certain items presented as evidence in the criminal case.[225] Media outlets—including The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Star-Ledger, and The Record—requested a hearing with Wigenton to ask that the ban be lifted or modified arguing for the First Amendment right of access to criminal court records.[225][226]
Those news organizations together asked the court to release the prosecution's list of unindicted co-conspirators. On February 17, 2016, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman's office filed a brief to Wigenton requesting that the Bridgegate records remain sealed so that the list of uncharged third-party co-conspirators not be made public. Co-conspirators refers to "individuals the government believes may have known about the plot to abruptly shut down access lanes to the bridge to cause massive traffic disruptions, but were not charged".[226] Fishman claimed that it was a policy of the United States Department of Justice "to avoid unnecessary public references to wrongdoing" by unindicted co-conspirator because they have no "evidentiary value" in the criminal matter. If the names were made public, then public employees or appointed officials, who were said to be involved in the lane closures, would not have the "opportunity to challenge that information in court".[225] Their names would be revealed if they were relevant at a future trial or if the Government "moves for the admission of an out-of-court statement made in furtherance of the conspiracy by an unindicted coconspirator".[225]
On May 10, 2016, Judge Wigenton ruled for the list's release, which she said named individuals "whom the government has sufficient evidence to designate as having joined the conspiracy".[227] Christie predicted that he would not appear on the list.[228] One of the men on the list filed an emergency motion, as John Doe, and the release was delayed.[229] On September 7, 2016, a federal appellate court ruled that the list, and the identity of John Doe, would remain secret for the time being, but that "the time may come, perhaps at trial".[230]
The media also asked for a separate existing list, which Kelly's attorney characterized as individuals "who were not unindicted co-conspirators, but whom the government believed were aware of the alleged criminal conspiracy charged in this case but did not join the conspiracy".[231]
Trial and conviction[edit]
The jury of seven women and five men, plus four alternates, was seated on September 14, 2016.[232][233] RNC member and former law partner Bill Palatucci, described as Christie's closest counselor,[234] might be called to testify.[235]
In its opening statement on September 19, 2016, the prosecution said that at the World Trade Center site on the third day of the closure, "the evidence will show that [Wildstein and Baroni] bragged [to Christie] about the fact that there were traffic problems in Fort Lee, and that Mayor Sokolich was not getting his calls returned", and that Wildstein would testify and "admit that he was the one who came up with that idea".[236]
Over the course of a month, prosecutors presented their case. David Wildstein appeared in week two, giving over eight days of testimony. After Wildstein left, prosecutors moved to secondary witnesses. On October 13, 2016, prosecutors concluded their arguments, having spent nearly four weeks laying an argument. The case moved to the defense.[237][238] Over the next two weeks, the jury heard arguments from the defense, with Bridget Anne Kelly in the spotlight, saying it was "crude humor". Bill Baroni maintained the argument that the traffic jams were part of a legitimate study to determine "whether congestion on the main approaches to the toll plaza could be reduced if the lanes earmarked for Fort Lee were eliminated". The case on October 26 concluded with the defense resting.[239]
On November 4, 2016, after deliberating the testimony of 35 witnesses (including the defendants) and other evidence over the course of five days, the jury found Baroni and Kelly guilty on all counts.[14][240]
Official misconduct case against Christie[edit]
Teaneck citizen activist William J. Brennan[251] filed a complaint in September 2016 in the Fort Lee municipal court, alleging official misconduct by Christie. The complaint specifically said that Christie had failed to stop the closure then in progress when, according to Wildstein's sworn testimony, Christie heard about it from Baroni and Wildstein on Wednesday, September 11, 2013, the third day of the closure. The complaint alleged that Fort Lee and its mayor "were deprived the benefit and enjoyment of their community as a consequence of this intentional evil minded act".[252][253]
In October 2016, Judge Roy F. McGeady, the presiding judge for the municipal courts in Bergen County, accepted jurisdiction based on the events having occurred in Fort Lee, and found that probable cause existed "to believe that an event of official misconduct was caused by Governor Christie". The judge therefore issued a summons.[254] This put the case into the hands of the Bergen County prosecutor's office. Prosecutor Gurbir Grewal, who was appointed by Christie, recused himself from the case; state attorney general Christopher Porrino, who previously served as governor's office counsel, also recused himself from the case.[255] Subordinates in their offices therefore handled the matter; the state Superior Court denied Brennan's request to appoint a special prosecutor.[255]
In January 2017, a state Superior Court judge denied Christie's motion to dismiss the citizen's complaint, but also vacated the earlier finding of probable cause on the basis that Christie had been improperly denied his right to counsel at the October 2016 hearing; the court ordered a new hearing regarding the complaint.[256] Later that month, prosecutors decided not to pursue charges against Christie.[257][258] While prosecutors chose not to pursue the case, the Bergen County municipal judge ruled that the case had not been dismissed,[259] and in February 2017, following a new hearing, the Bergen County municipal judge ruled that the case could proceed—saying "The court is satisfied that [Christie] had knowledge of the traffic problems in Fort Lee"—and issued a new criminal summons.[260]
In March 2017, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office dropped the complaint against Christie, writing to the Superior Court judge that "we do not believe that an official misconduct charge can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt".[261]
Christie's responses[edit]
On December 2, 2013, Christie said at a press conference that Democrats were just playing politics by holding hearings into lane closures. "Just because [Rep.] John Wisniewski is obsessed with this, and [Sen.] Loretta Weinberg, it just shows that they really have nothing to do," Christie said.[289] Christie later credited the e-mail documents subpoenaed by the hearings as the first information he had that his staff was involved.[106] When reporter Matt Katz asked, "Governor, did you have anything to do with these lane closures in September outside the GW Bridge? Have you spoken to--"[290] Christie dismissively joked "I worked the cones, actually, Matt. Unbeknownst to everybody I was actually the guy out there. I was in overalls and a hat. You cannot be serious with that question, Matt!"[291][292]
Christie claimed to not know anything about the Fort Lee lanes, saying: "I didn't know Fort Lee got three dedicated lanes until all this stuff happened, and I think we should review that entire policy. Because I don't know why Fort Lee needs three dedicated lanes to tell you the truth", and "the fact that one town has three lanes dedicated to it? That kind of gets me sauced [upset]."[293] Members of the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee said at a November 25, 2013, hearing that the Fort Lee entrance has been used by an even greater number of commuters from the surrounding Bergen County towns. PA officials, including Patrick Foye, confirmed that assessment in their sworn testimony at the committee hearing on December 9, 2013.[40][117]
Christie has denied involvement, saying that his staff acted without his knowledge regarding to the planning for the lane closures. He said at an April 2014 town hall meeting: "if anybody told me they were going to do this, I would have stopped it".[294] In her trial in 2016, Christie's deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly stated under oath that Christie had lied to distance himself from the scandal.[293]
On December 12, 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported[295] that Christie was said to have called New York governor Andrew Cuomo to complain about Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority and a Cuomo appointee, in an apparent attempt to shut down Foye's investigation of the lane closures.[296][297] On December 13, 2013, Christie denied such a call, saying, "The story is categorically wrong. I did not have that conversation with Governor Cuomo in any way, shape or form."[298] In his January 9, 2014, press conference, he also denied any such conversation.[106] Heather Haddon of The Wall Street Journal still stood by the report on February 19,[299] and Matt Katz said that he had independently confirmed it.[300] During the federal trial of Baroni and Kelly, PA Commissioner Scott Rechler (appointed by Cuomo as vice-chairman under Samson) testified that Cuomo had told him that "Governor Christie mentioned to [Cuomo] that David Samson was once again complaining about Pat Foye interfering, getting involved in politics."[301]
At a press conference on December 13, Christie announced the immediate resignations of Baroni and Wildstein.[11][302] Nevertheless, Christie said the closure was "absolutely, unequivocally not" political retribution.[303]
Christie added: "I've made it very clear to everybody on my senior staff that if anyone had any knowledge about this, they needed to come forward to me and tell me about it. And they've all assured me that they don't."[304] Christie said: "The chief of staff and chief counsel assured me they feel comfortable that we have all the information we need to have."[11]
At that point during the December 13 press conference, Christina Genovese Renna texted to Pete Sheridan, "Are you listening? He [Christie] just flat out lied about senior staff and [Bill] Stepien not being involved", and "He lied. And if e-mails are found with the subpoena or [campaign] e-mails are uncovered in discovery if it come to that it could be bad." The texts from Renna (an employee of Kelly) to Sheridan (who had worked on the re-election campaign) came to light in court filings by Baroni's attorneys on August 10, 2016, to which Christie responded, "I absolutely dispute it. It's ridiculous. It's nothing new."[305][306] At the federal trial, Renna walked back her comments, testifying, "I had no knowledge of whether the governor was lying or not. But it seemed to contradict what I had been told."[307]
In a nearly two-hour press conference on January 9, 2014, Christie apologized for the toll lane closures and said that he was "embarrassed and humiliated" by the behavior of his staff. Christie claimed he first learned of his staff's involvement via news media reports on January 8. The governor announced that he had fired Bridget Kelly, calling her "deceitful", claiming her lack of disclosure about her actions and e-mails caused him to mislead the public.[106][308] Christie admonished his two-time campaign manager Bill Stepien and said he had asked Stepien to withdraw his name from the Republican State Party Chairman race, and to cease his consulting role for the Republican Governors Association.[309] Christie promised that he and his staff would cooperate with any government investigations, including those by the New Jersey Legislature. When asked what he would do if subpoenaed to testify on the matter, Christie said, "I'm not going to speculate on that".[106]
Christie said "I have had no contact with David Wildstein in a long time, a long time, well before the election." Christie was re-elected Governor on November 5, 2013.[310] On September 11, 2013, during the third day of the closures, Christie, Wildstein, Samson and Baroni were photographed together at the site of the World Trade Center during a commemoration of the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.[10]
In the press conference, Christie described his earlier efforts to determine his staff's involvement, saying: "I brought my senior staff together I think about four weeks ago tomorrow. And I put to all of them one simple challenge: If there is any information that you know about the decision to close these lanes in Fort Lee, you have one hour to tell either my chief of staff, Kevin O'Dowd, or my chief counsel, Charlie McKenna."[311]
The governor's office issued a statement on January 31, 2014, that denied the allegations about Christie that were contained in a January 31 letter from Alan Zegas (Wildstein's attorney) to the PA, which had been made public. The letter questioned the accuracy of various statements made by Christie about his client, without providing any specific references, and claimed that there is evidence of Christie being aware of the toll lane closures at the time that they were closed. The governor's office said that Christie stood by his position that he "first learned lanes were closed when it was reported by the press".[312][313] Christie previously said in his December 13 press conference that this was well after the toll lanes for local traffic were reopened.[314]
During his monthly talk radio broadcast on February 3, Christie said he was cooperating with subpoenas from the state legislative committee and the U.S. Attorney to his governor's office, which began turning over documents to the legislative committee earlier in the day and would continue to do so as the requested items were located.[315]
On April 17, Christie enacted two recommendations of the Mastro report. He eliminated the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, which had been headed by Bridget Kelly. He named Patrick E. Hobbs, dean of Seton Hall University School of Law, Christie's alma mater, as a part-time ombudsman to address complaints about misconduct, enhance ethics training and accountability, and improve electronic communications in the governor's office. Critics noted that Christie's staff and others had used personal e-mails to avoid public scrutiny.[316]
Hobbs retained his Seton Hall post.[316][317] Hobbs asserted that Christie had given him "full authority and independence" and would leave the job if he felt impeded. The United States Ombudsman Association recommends, however, that ombudsmen be appointed by entities outside of their jurisdiction, preferably by a legislature, to avoid any questions about independence.[317] In 2006, as U.S. Attorney, Christie approved Bristol-Myers Squibb's endowment of an ethics chair at Seton Hall's law school in a controversial prosecution settlement.[317][318] After a controversy arose over this agreement, Hobbs wrote a letter in 2006 to the editor of The Wall Street Journal praising Christie. Hobbs said he has had a 15-year professional relationship with Christie, and denied the Bristol-Meyers-Squibb arrangement would compromise his role as ombudsman.[318]
On April 24, Christie denied creating a "culture of divisiveness" or that perceptions about his attitude may have led others to plan and allow the lane closures to occur as retaliation. "If in fact I created a culture where people were going after each other, then how did we do all these things together with Republicans and Democrats?" Christie asked during a Brick, New Jersey town hall meeting.[294][319] The Star-Ledger editorial board answered that Richard Nixon had cut deals with Democrats, but had still abused power; and that despite Christie's early bipartisanship, he has thrown himself into several partisan standoffs; and that his personal style had always been "vindictive and aggressive"; and concluded that Christie "created the culture that inspired" the lane closures.[320]
After the May 2015 indictment of Baroni and Kelly and the Wildstein guilty plea, Christie said that the outcome of the federal investigation was a vindication. He said on Twitter "Today's charges make clear that what I've said from day one is true", and "I had no knowledge or involvement in the planning or execution of this act."[16]
Christie again said he had "no knowledge of" the planning of the event during a June 2023 town hall event on CNN.[321]
Media coverage[edit]
The lane closure controversy has received substantial attention from the New York area and national media. The first story in the media about the lane closures, and the first to bring politics into the mix, was reported by The Record's John Cichowski in his Road Warrior column on September 13, 2013, that there was speculation that Fort Lee mayor Mark Sokolich was targeted "either for failing to endorse Governor Christie's election bid or for pushing through a $500 million, 47-story high-rise housing development near the bridge, or for failing to support the Port's last toll hike".[76][82]
On September 17, 2013, Ted Mann of The Wall Street Journal wrote a story about what could have possibly prompted the Port Authority to close toll lanes to local traffic without public notifications. Citing anonymous sources, he reported that "the decision to close the traffic lanes caused tension" since "the lane closures came as a surprise to some high-ranking officials at the bi-state agency". He said that the toll lanes were reopened to local traffic based on an order from Executive Director Patrick Foye, "who argued that the abrupt shift in traffic patterns caused a threat to public safety and should have been advertised to the public ahead of time".[343]
A subsequent newspaper report by Mann, published on October 1, 2013, was the first to address the contents and quote some of the text from Foye's September 13, 2013, e-mail to PA officials. Foye's e-mail ordered the toll lanes to be reopened while denouncing the closures as an "abusive decision" and pledging to investigate "how PA process was wrongfully subverted and the public interest damaged" without Foye's knowledge. The e-mail said that there were potential violations of state and federal laws. PA insiders disputed that there was a traffic study. All of this reinforced the reported rumors that the toll lanes might have been closed by political surrogates of Christie, a Republican, as an alleged act of political retribution against Sokolich, a Democrat, for not endorsing Christie in his 2013 re-election campaign.[344] The Record, The Wall Street Journal, and other news media continued to investigate the matter in comprehensive reporting over the next few months, using sources and requests for public records.
The New York Times covered the lane closure story on December 8, 2013.[345]
The scandal broke in full on January 8, 2014, with an online story by Shawn Boburg of The Record[346][347] that Christie's deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly was involved in the planning of the toll lane closures. That revelation catapulted the story into a national political event. The Record continued with details of the dialogues in the troves of e-mails and texts supplied to the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee by David Wildstein. The Record described "vindictive lane closures" that were intended to cause massive traffic jams in Fort Lee. Related news with quotes from the e-mails and texts were subsequently published the same day in other news media.[44][129] During his January 9, 2014, press conference about the scandal, Governor Christie cited The Record as breaking the pivotal story on January 8.[106]
MSNBC gave substantial coverage to the Bridgegate scandal, and the network's ratings reached their highest point since the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings when it covered Chris Christie's apologetic press conference on January 9, 2014.[348] MSNBC's intensive coverage was criticized by Christie, who was formerly close to MSNBC, calling it a "partisan network" that is "almost gleeful in their efforts attacking" him.[349] In response to Christie's criticisms of the intensive coverage by MSNBC and other media, Steve Kornacki noted in 2015 that coverage by the media primarily focused on the causes and effects of the bridge toll lane closures and the involvement of members of Christie's administration and his Port Authority appointees, David Wildstein and Bill Baroni, rather than Christie himself. Observing that Christie had ridiculed the media in 2013 for trying to implicate Wildstein and Baroni, Kornacki noted that by 2015, Wildstein had pleaded guilty to federal charges and Baroni was facing a federal indictment in connection with the scandal.[350]
The usage of "Serbian" as a slur received particular attention and condemnation within the Serbian diaspora. Website inSerbia published an open letter from a Serbian-American couple condemning Wildstein and Baroni's comments and calling for the governor to apologize to the Serbian-American community.[351][88] Slavka Drašković of the Serbian government's Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region also condemned their remarks, stating: “We cannot allow for every name that ends in ‘-ić’ to be identified with the bad and abusive, and in this case, to become the victim of prejudice.”.[88] The comments also caught the attention of Serbian and Croatian media. Newspapers in Serbia emphasized the derogatory comments in their headlines, while those in Croatia emphasized Sokolich's heritage. Laura Silber, co-author of Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation, expressed her pleasure at the civility of Balkan commentary over the incident: “The comments on the articles were surprisingly measured. The people who brought you the term ‘ethnic cleansing’, they were saying it’s impolite to comment on someone’s nationality and use it as an insult.” [88]
In a decision on July 2, 2014, Superior Court Judge P. J. Innes ruled in favor of the North Jersey Media Group, publisher of the newspaper The Record, that the state must partially comply with open records request and turn over some information it had previously refused to release regarding current and former state employees' written requests for the state to appoint them attorneys or pay their legal fees resulting from parallel criminal and legislative investigations into the lane closures, though not the names of the employees. The state must pay the media group's legal fees. The media group plans to appeal, to gain fuller disclosure of the documents.[352]