The US Supreme Court, closed because of the coronavirus lockdown, as seen on May 4, 2020 (SAUL LOEB)

Washington (AFP) – The Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a rare unanimous decision that local officials in New Jersey who carried out a political vendetta for the state governor do not deserve to go to prison.

The scandal known as Bridgegate grabbed national headlines in 2013 and involved then governor Chris Christie, who would go on to be an ally of Donald Trump before falling out with him.

After a six-week trial at the federal level in 2017, two former aides of Christie were found guilty of unlawfully orchestrating a major traffic jam on the world’s busiest bridge to punish a Democratic mayor for refusing to endorse Christie’s re-election bid in 2013. 

Thousands were affected in the town of Fort Lee, with children prevented from going to school and emergency response times seriously delayed when aides to the Republican Christie cut traffic down to a solitary lane on the George Washington Bridge in September 2013. The mess lasted four days.

The defendants were the governor’s then deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, and Bill Baroni, whom Christie had appointed deputy executive director at the Port Authority, which operates the bridge.

Kelly initially got 18 months in prison and Baroni 24 months, after being convicted of fraud and conspiracy. On appeal these were reduced to 13 and 18 months, respectively.

Baroni started serving his prison term in April of last year but Kelly remained free on bail while her appeal made its way through the federal courts. Baroni was not initially party to it, but was later allowed to join his co-defendant’s appeal and released from prison in July.

The high court’s nine justices ruled Thursday that the case did involve abuse of power, corruption and other wrongdoing.

“But the federal fraud statutes at issue do not criminalize all such conduct,” the judges said in their ruling.

“Because the scheme here did not aim to obtain money or property,” the judges said, the two former Christie aides “could not have violated the federal-program fraud or wire fraud laws.” The ruling overturns their convictions.

Christie at the time insisted he was not aware of what his aides had done, but his approval rating tanked and his ambitions to run for president in 2016 never recovered.

The Supreme Court said Thursday that while the case did involve abuse of power “not every corrupt act by state or local officials is a federal crime.”

In a statement welcoming the ruling, Christie said it ends a “six and a half year political crusade” begun by the Obama administration and which “dragged through the mud” many people who had nothing to do with the events.  

He insisted the US attorney who brought the charges, Paul Fishman, “was determined to damage the reputations of as many members of our administration as he could.” 

Disclaimer: Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Source: AFP.