A Bergen County, New Jersey judge ruled Thursday that there was probable cause to allow a citizen’s official misconduct complaint against Gov. Chris Christie (R) in relation to the 2013 Bridgegate scandal to move forward.
After Judge Roy McGeady’s ruling on the complaint, which was filed in late September by citizen activist Bill Brennan, the case now goes to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office. State prosecutors will decide whether the case then goes to a grand jury for possible indictment, WNBC reported.
Brennan alleged in the complaint that Christie knew about his allies’ politically-motivated plot to orchestrate a days-long traffic jam in the town of Fort Lee to punish the town’s Democratic mayor, and that he allowed it to proceed, according to NJ.com. Brennan said it was prompted by testimony from Christie’s former self-described “enforcer” at the Port Authority, David Wildstein, who struck a plea deal over his own involvement in the plan and is now serving as the federal prosecution’s star witness.
Wildstein testified that he and Baroni told Christie about the plan to cause a traffic jam by closing lanes on the George Washington Bridge during a 9/11 memorial event that year, while the closures were still underway. Brennan said Christie could have intervened to open the lanes up at that point, according to NJ.com.
Christie has long denied knowing about the motivation for the closures until far after they were over, and his office promised Thursday to “immediately appeal” the ruling.
Bill Baroni, another former appointee of Christie’s at the Port Authority, and former Christie staffer Bridget Anne Kelly are currently on trial for federal fraud and corruption charges over their alleged roles in orchestrating the scheme.
The New Jersey criminal code permits private citizens to file complaints. But Stuart Green, a law professor at Rutgers University who specializes in white collar crime, told TPM it would be unusual for the state to decided to proceed with the case against Christie, given that they typically coordinate with federal prosecutors as to who will take the lead in cases involving laws that bridge both levels of government.
“Until the federal case is resolved, I’d be surprised if a state prosecutor would pursue a prosecution,” Green told TPM. “I think they would let the dust settle on the federal case before they’d bring a state case.”
According to Green, if “new evidence” had emerged during the federal trial that “creates probably cause, there’s no reason in principle why that couldn’t lead to new charges.” But given that Brennan’s complaint was based on Wildstein’s testimony, and that Wildstein likely provided all the information he has to the U.S. Attorney’s Office well before the federal trial began, Green said that prosecutors likely determined they did not have enough evidence to prosecute Christie.
New Jersey District Attorney Paul Fishman was repeatedly asked ahead of the Bridgegate trial if the governor would be indicted, and told reporters that he would not “based on the evidence currently available.”
“It seems to me likely that whatever Wildstein said on the stand, he’d already told prosecutors, and they made the judgment not to pursue Christie,” Green said. “That doesn’t mean that a state prosecutor couldn’t decide to do so. But given that they previously stepped aside, I’d be surprised if they didn’t step aside at this juncture.”
“The main difference is that the political climate has changed, that Christie is much less popular then he was a year and a half ago,” he added.
Christie spokesman Brian Murray said on Thursday that the complaint was frivolous.
“This is a dishonorable complaint filed by a known serial complainant and political activist with a history of abusing the judicial system,” Murray said in an emailed statement. “The simple fact is the governor had no knowledge of the lane realignments either before they happened or while they were happening. This matter has already been thoroughly investigated by three separate independent investigations.”
