3 former Christie allies charged in bridge scandal

Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J.

Federal prosecutors brought charges Friday against three former allies of Gov. Chris Christie — but not Christie himself — in the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal, apparently easing the legal threat that has hung over his 2016 White House ambitions for more than a year.

One of those charged, David Wildstein, a former high-ranking official at the transportation agency that operates the bridge, pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors, saying he and the other defendants engineered huge traffic jams to get even with a local politician.

Christie was not implicated in court or in the indictments.

“Based on the evidence currently available to us, we’re not going to charge anyone else in this scheme,” U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said at a news conference.

The Republican governor claimed vindication.

“Today’s charges make clear that what I’ve said from day one is true — I had no knowledge or involvement in the planning or execution of this act,” Christie said in a statement.

Though Christie may be out of any immediate legal danger, politically it could be more complicated. The furor already has damaged his standing in the polls, and the charges put the scandal back in the news just as the presidential cycle is getting underway and candidates are jumping into the race.

Wildstein, a former official at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, saying he and the other Christie loyalists closed lanes and created gridlock in September 2013 as political payback against a Democratic mayor. He said the three of them also concocted a cover story: It was a traffic study.

The two people he implicated — former Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni, who was the governor’s top appointee at the Port Authority — were charged with fraud, conspiracy and other offenses in an indictment unsealed later in the day.