Visit to Supreme Court will clear Bill Baroni’s Bridgegate-stained name
Over four years ago, I wrote the following: “Here’s what I think: I think Bill Baroni is the Bridgegate patsy. He got set up, he got knocked down, and now he’s got to fight his way forward in hopes the truth – whatever that word means within this context – comes out.”
And in a few months from now, I’m going to be proven right, as the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of Bridget Anne Kelly and Baroni’s convictions.
Might be as early as late September, might be as late as December or January, but make no mistake: The United States Supreme Court will be hearing this case.
And I will eat this very newspaper if they don’t overturn the convictions. I wish DraftKings would offer odds on this. Kelly and Baroni, six years after the events of Bridgegate, will have their convictions tossed by the court. Which means, in the end – outside of Baroni doing three months in a federal prison before being let out on bail last week after the Supremes decided to hear the case – no one is doing any time for what happened.
And I’ll tell you this much – Baroni, from where I’m sitting, got the worst of the deal. His name besmirched, his law license revoked, his career in tatters. Was he “guilty” of anything in the end? Maybe poor judgment. Some of his decisions – the ones made public by the prosecutors, most of them text messages – appear to be based on Baroni’s desire to keep his job. Listen: David Wildstein was the mastermind of whatever Bridgegate was. Wildstein was technically working under Baroni at the Port Authority, but that’s like saying LeBron James is technically working under new Lakers coach Frank Vogel. Wildstein was making decisions without Baroni’s consent, and the text and email chains show that. Baroni – if he knew something nefarious was afoot – should’ve blown the whistle. But if he did that, he was risking everything. Whistle blowers don’t usually experience happy endings. If Baroni knew from the jump, I don’t fault him, at a human level, for hoping the whole thing would just blow over.
But again – that’s assuming he knew from the jump. The only person who claims Baroni knew from the jump is Wildstein, who struck a deal with prosecutors, avoided jail, and is now running “New Jersey Globe,” an online political news site that appears to be raking in the ad dollars.
To be somewhat clear in an otherwise unclear tale: Baroni may or may not have known the true intent of Wildstein’s “traffic study,” but he certainly wasn’t the mastermind.
And he certainly didn’t deserve the last six years.
By the way, Baroni and Kelly were convicted on some shaky legal ground, hence the reason the Supreme Court is willing to take a look at this. Basically, the two were convicted for using government money in a political payback scheme, at least as far as I can gather based on a New York Times look at the case. In short: It cost taxpayers $1,828 to run the “traffic study.” The high court is going to decide whether the federal prosecutors overstepped the law in ginning up these charges.
And as I said earlier, they’re going to decide in favor of Baroni and Kelly. I am certain of it. If you think they got railroaded, this is justice. If you think they’re scum, then they’ll join Wildstein, Chris Christie, David Samson, and countless other officials who might have known things and gotten away with it.
But for Baroni, I think it’s justice. Even if he knew things, he certainly didn’t deserve to take the fall for the whole thing. It’s insane that Wildstein – the selfprofessed mastermind – walked away free and Kelly and Baroni got convicted. I know life ain’t fair, but that ain’t fair.
So in a few months time, Bridgegate will – finally, and for realsies this time – be over. And for Bill Baroni, the renewal will begin. He’ll get his law license back, for starters. I, for one, would love to see him return to Hamilton to live and work. I think he’d get a hero’s welcome. Hamilton residents know from political no-goodery, but I’m willing to bet they hate prosecutorial overreach even more. I mean, it’s one thing for a jury to find you innocent, a whole ‘nuther thing for the United States Supreme Court to say so.
Who knows … maybe Baroni, a former state assemblyman and senator, even decides to get back into politics. I mean, Rep. Chris Smith will probably retire at some point, no?
Now wouldn’t that be the ultimate end to this story? Mr. Bridgegate goes to Washington.