Charges, plea in N.J. bridge scandal

Another Christie ally pleads guilty

David Wildstein, above, a former Port Authority official, pleaded guilty to charges and two other officials are indicted for

their alleged roles.

NEWARK, N.J. — Federal prosecutors have charged a former aide to Gov. Chris Christie and a former top Christie appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey with conspiring to jam traffic at the George Washington Bridge in a plot of retribution against a mayor who had refused to endorse the Republican governor’s 2013 re-election.

The charges were announced Friday by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, after a third former Christie ally pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy in the lane closure plot.

David Wildstein, a former official at the bi-state port authority, admitted to conspiring with former Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly and former authority official Bill Baroni to punish Democratic Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, timing the lane closures to the first day of school in September 2013 to maximize the impact of the resulting traffic.

Mr. Wildstein also acknowledged using the guise of a traffic study — an explanation repeated by Mr. Christie’s office — to cover up the truth. The traffic study rationale was a “sham,” Mr. Fishman said during a news conference Friday afternoon. “A total fabrication.”

Mr. Fishman said his office did not anticipate additional charges in the lane closure plot.

The charges brought by Mr. Fishman’s office include conspiracy to intentionally misapply property of an organization receiving federal benefits. Those charges are based on a statute applying to agencies that get more than $10,000 in federal funding a year, Mr. Fishman said.

Mr. Baroni and Ms. Kelly are scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.

Mr. Baroni’s lawyer, Michael Baldassare, told reporters Friday afternoon that his client was “innocent of the charges brought against him.” He said Mr. Baroni, a former Republican state senator, had always placed “principle over politics,” but that “no one disputes that David Wildstein is a criminal and a liar.”

In her first public appearance since she was fired by Mr. Christie, Ms. Kelly told reporters Friday that she had not conspired with Mr. Wildstein and was not guilty of the charges filed against her.

She neither knew Mr. Sokolich nor harbored “ill feelings towards him,” Ms. Kelly said. “Additionally, for the indictment to suggest that I was the only person in the governor’s office who was aware of the George Washington Bridge issue is ludicrous,” she said.

Mr. Wildstein was released on a $100,000 bond due to his cooperation with the government, according to his attorney, Alan Zegas.

Asked what the governor knew about the traffic matter, Mr. Zegas said, “Mr. Christie knew of the lane closures while they were occurring,” repeating an assertion he made last year.

He again said “evidence exists” to show that, but did not give specifics.