FILE – This combination of March 29, 2017, file photos shows Bridget Kelly, left, leaving federal court after sentencing in Newark, N.J., and Bill Baroni leaving federal court after sentencing in Newark. Baroni’s lawyer filed a motion Monday, July 1, 2019, seeking to have him released on bail after The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last Friday to hear an appeal in the fall in his George Washington Bridge lane-closing case. The case involved Baroni, who was deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A former Chris Christie appointee convicted in the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal is set to be freed from prison after a federal judge ordered his release Monday pending an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court.
U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton signed the order shortly after attorneys for Bill Baroni, who had started serving an 18-month sentence in April, filed it. A message has been left with his attorneys.
Bridget Kelly was also convicted in the 2013 scheme, commonly called Bridgegate, and was due to report for a 13-month sentence on July 10. Her attorneys asked the judge to postpone that in light of the high court’s decision Friday to review the case in the fall.
The convictions stem from the 2013 closure of lanes to the bridge connecting New Jersey and New York as part of a political payback scheme.
Baroni was not initially part of the appeal, but has since been permitted to join Kelly’s effort to overturn their 2016 convictions.
Kelly and Baroni have said they’re grateful the Supreme Court is hearing their appeal and are hopeful the court will find no crime was committed.
Both Baroni and Kelly had their sentences reduced after an appeals court tossed out civil rights convictions last fall. They were also convicted on wire fraud charges for their role in shutting down the bridge’s local lanes in Fort Lee, New Jersey, just as the school year was beginning — causing gridlock in the town.
Baroni was the deputy executive director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the region’s airports, bridges and tunnels including the George Washington Bridge. Kelly served as Christie’s deputy chief of staff. She authored a now-infamous emailed that included the line “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”
The town’s mayor, a Democrat, declined to endorse Christie, a Republican, for his re-election in 2013. Christie was courting Democrats as part of an effort to show he had cross-party appeal.
Christie has denied any wrongdoing and wasn’t charged. Following the developments in the case Friday, Christie said in an appearance Friday on ABC’s “The View” that he has always thought the prosecution was political and that no crimes had been committed.
The scandal generated negative headlines for Christie and played a role in his failed 2016 presidential campaign, with his rivals using it to attack the two-term governor. Then-candidate Donald Trump, for example, said on the trail that Christie knew about the bridge closure — something Christie always denied.
David Wildstein, another former Port Authority official, pleaded guilty and testified for prosecutors during the trial. He was convicted and sentenced to probation, and now operates a New Jersey politics news site.
By MIKE CATALINI
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