Two former allies of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) are facing conspiracy charges in a plot to exact revenge against a local politician who declined to endorse Christie’s re-election effort by closing toll lanes on the George Washington Bridge, according to an indictment unsealed Friday.
Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, a former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive appointed by Christie, were each hit with seven counts of conspiracy and wire fraud in the so-called “BridgeGate” scandal.
Another former Christie ally, former Port Authority executive David Wildstein, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Newark to two counts of conspiracy and admitted his participation in the revenge plot.
Kelly and her attorney plan to respond to the charges in a press conference scheduled for Friday at 4 p.m. ET.
Read the indictment below:
This post has been updated.
This is interesting. Will Christie’s allies take the fall for him or will they sell out and turn on him to get a more favorable plea deal. I bet Chris Christie is sweating like a fat lady in a steam sauna
It will be an interesting press conference this afternoon. Which almost never happens at 4pm on a Friday.
Certainly not the usual fare for the Friday evening news dump.
(1.) Christie is in freefall
(2.) thoroughly convinced that Christie’s camp had a sense that it was going to be bleak - so much so that when:
Mary Pat Christie resigned her $475,000 position at hedge fund Angelo, Gordon & Co., ( last day on April 24)
Hopefully he lands safely in a police van…