In an overnight filing, the U.S. Attorney's office said Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly lied, and then tried to cover-up those lies, in a scheme of political retaliation when they helped shut down several local tolls lanes at the George Washington Bridge to deliberately cause massive traffic jams in Fort Lee
NEWARK--Federal prosecutors in the high-profile Bridgegate case reject defense claims that improper jury instructions led to the convictions of the two former members of Gov. Chris Christie's inner circle, asking a judge to deny a request for a new trial.
In a late night filing, the U.S. Attorney's office said Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly lied, and then tried to cover-up those lies, in a scheme of political retaliation when they helped shut down several local tolls lanes at the George Washington Bridge to deliberately cause massive traffic jams in Fort Lee just prior to Christie's re-election.
In rejecting calls for a new trial, they said the defense was seeking to relitigate the court's earlier decisions about the charges in the case.
"The evidence presented at trial proved beyond a reasonable doubt that defendants committed the offenses charged in the Indictment," prosecutors declared.
They added that "regardless of motive, the jury could find that the deliberate causing of traffic problems in Fort Lee, contrary to the Port Authority's mission, practices, and procedures, was unrelated to any legitimate use of Port Authority property--whether the defendants wanted to cause such traffic problems to punish Mayor (Mark) Sokolich or merely to enjoy watching Fort Lee residents suffer."
Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Kelly, who served as deputy chief of staff to Christie, were convicted in November of conspiracy and wire fraud in the traffic scandal that became known as "Bridgegate."
The key witness against the two was David Wildstein, a Republican operative and former colleague of Baroni at the Port Authority, who testified that he was the one who came up with the idea to close the lanes as a point of leverage against Mayor Sokolich.
Wildstein said he cleared the lane closure plan with Kelly, who he claimed was his main point of contact with the governor's office, and that Baroni helped him put it in play.
Christie has repeatedly said he did not know about the lane closures beforehand. He was never charged with any wrongdoing.
Defense attorneys, in their motion for a new trial or acquittal of the two, argued that U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton made a mistake when she ruled that prosecutors did not have to show the bizarre plot to close the lanes was intended to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for his refusal to endorse the Republican governor.
Michael Critchley, who represents Kelly, said the punishment of Sokolich had been the cornerstone of the government's legal case. However, he said in court filings that the game changed when the jury sent a note out during deliberations asking whether the pair could be found guilty of conspiracy without the act being intentionally punitive toward Sokolich.
Critchley said the court's answer that they could was a misstatement of the law, and effectively amended the indictment--all but guaranteeing conviction.
In an additional filing earlier this month, lawyers for the two also raised similarities to a Massachusetts bribery and corruption case that was thrown out last month by an appellate panel, which ruled the government overreached in charging employees for the state's probation office with federal crimes. The appeals court wrote that although the actions of the defendants "may well be deemed distasteful, the government overreached its bound in using federal statutes to police the hiring practices of Massachusetts state officials."
But in the brief filed by assistant U.S. attorneys Lee Cortes Jr., Vikas Khanna and David Feder, the prosecutors said the government's case was not restricted to any particular theory of motive.
"The government introduced overwhelming evidence to support its factual allegations that (the) defendants sought to punish Mayor Sokolich, but that was simply the explanation for their conduct," they said in the brief. "The jury could consider such proof of motive in deciding whether the government satisfied the elements of the charged offenses."
They said that the court was correct when it instructed the jury that "motive was not an essential element of any of the charged offenses that required proof beyond a reasonable doubt."
Bridgegate verdict: guilty on all counts
They added that the Massachusetts case cited by the defense as a new factor in arguing for acquittal was simply a "run-of-the-mill failure of proof case whose facts revolve around a state agency's hiring practices and therefore are entirely unrelated to the facts of this case."
The key witness against Baroni and Kelly during the Bridgegate trial was David Wildstein, a Republican operative and former colleague of Baroni at the Port Authority, who testified that he was the one who came up with the idea to close the lanes as a point of leverage against Mayor Mark Sokolich.
David Wildstein at Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Courthouse in Newark during the Bridgegate trial. (Julio Cortez | AP photo)Wildstein said he cleared the plan with Kelly, who he claimed was his main point of contact with the governor's office, and that Baroni helped him put it in play.
A jury of seven women and five men heard from 35 witnesses during the seven-week trial, including both defendants who took the stand on their behalf. But the most damaging evidence might have been the infamous "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" email sent by Kelly less than a month before the toll lanes at the world's busiest bridge were inexplicably closed for nearly a week.
Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 21. Baroni and Kelly face up to 20 years in prison, but neither is likely to serve anywhere near that time under federal sentencing guidelines, with legal experts predicting they may only receive a sentence of one to three years.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.