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<h6><span style="color:#1a0202;"><strong>Jury finds two former allies of Chris Christie guilty of all charges Friday for their roles in George Washington bridge traffic debacle</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1a0202;"><strong>Christie top aides Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni face up to 20 years for the most serious charge of wire fraud</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1a0202;"><strong>Kelly 44, and ex-Port Authority executive Baroni, 44, convicted on all nine counts.</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1a0202;"><strong>The Bridgegate scheme tanked the New Christie’s White House bid.</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color:#1a0202;"><strong>Former Deputy Chief-Of-Staff Bridget Anne Kelly, a key player in the drama, wept in court as verdict was handed</strong></span></h6>
<h3><span style="color:#808080;"><em><strong>The Bridgegate scandal destroyed any chance Christie had at the White House. So far, </strong></em></span><span style="color:#808080;"><em><strong>three former high profile aides have been convicted for their role in the scheme. Christie continues to maintain he was unaware of the shenanigans of his closest aides and confidantes. The question is, how deep does the Christie Teflon suit run?</strong></em></span></h3>
<h1 id="ra-headline"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-94591" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bridget-anne-kelly-and-bill-baroni3.jpg" alt="bridget-anne-kelly-and-bill-baroni3" width="780" height="603" /></h1>
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<h6>Former Christie deputy Chief-Of-Staff Bridget Anne Kelly and ex-Port Authority executive Bill Baroni outside court on Monday</h6>
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<article id="ra-body">Two former top aides of New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, were found guilty of all charges Friday for their roles in the infamous 2013 bridge closing incident that crippled the Christie’s White House bid.<br />
Former Christie Deputy Chief-Of-Staff, Bridget Anne Kelly 44, and ex-Port Authority executive Bill Baroni, 44, face up to 20 years for the most serious charge of wire fraud.<br />
The 12-person jury took five days to convict the Christie confidantes on all nine counts of connivance and participating in the Bridgegate scheme.<br />
The defendants were accused of creating a massive morning rush hour gridlock, on the first day of school in Fall, 2013, intended as a message to the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., over his refusal to endorse Gov. Christie for re-election.<br />
Kelly broke down weeping immediately after the verdict was announced while Baroni showed no emotion.<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-94579" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bill-baroni-former-port-authority-exec-and-christie-confidante1.jpg" alt="bill-baroni-former-port-authority-exec-and-christie-confidante1" width="1200" height="798" /></p>
<h6><strong>Convicted: Bill Baroni says he will file an appeal. He claims he is innocent</strong></h6>
<p>Their reaction outside court however, was defiant. Both defense teams, as well as Baroni himself , vowed to appeal.<br />
“I am innocent of these charges, and I am very looking forward to this appeal,” Baroni said.<br />
Defense lawyers reacted with fury at the close of the trial when U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton told the jury they didn’t need to consider the motive of political payback to convict the pair of conspiracy.<br />
“This case was, and is, a disgrace,” Baroni’s attorney, Michael Baldassare said.<br />
Kelly’s lawyer Michael Critchley, described the trial as just the “first step” in his client’s effort to clear her name.<br />
“This is not over, I can assure you,” Critchley said outside the courthouse.<br />
“I felt my client was innocent when I came into this case. As I’m talking right now, I feel my client is innocent.”<br />
The case revolved around whether the government had to prove that Kelly and Baroni closed lanes from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge in September 2013 as part of a conspiracy to punish the town&#8217;s mayor, Mark Sokolich. The defendants had said they believed the closures were part of a legitimate traffic study. Another issue at stake was the fact of if and when the governor knew about the lane closures.</p>
<div class="ra-byline"><img class="alignnone wp-image-94598" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bridget-anne-kelly4.png" alt="Bridget Anne Kelly4.png" width="625" height="639" /></div>
<h6 class="ra-byline"><strong>Convicted: Bridget Anne Kelly wrote the infamous&#8221;Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee&#8221; email</strong></h6>
<div class="ra-byline">Christie Himself released a defiant statement after the verdict. He has maintained he knew nothing about the lane closures before they were implemented or while they were underway. But Kelly testified she told Christie about the supposed Fort Lee traffic study a month before the lanes were reduced.<br />
Baroni also testified that another Christie appointee convicted for his role in Bridgegate, David Wildstein discussed the ongoing traffic study with Christie at a 9/11 Memorial event on September 11, 2013, the third of four days of gridlock.<br />
David Wildstein offered a different account, testifying that Baroni informed Christie of the gridlock, which was political in nature. Christie &#8220;laughed&#8221; at the traffic, Wildstein said.<br />
Several witnesses, so far, have testified that he was aware of the lane closures before and after they were put in motion.<br />
Christie is sticking to his claim that he knew nothing about the scheme.<br />
“Let me be clear once again. I had no knowledge prior to or during these lane realignments, and had no role in authorizing them,” he said.<br />
“No believable evidence was presented to contradict that fact.”<br />
Sentencing is scheduled for March 21.</div>
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<h6 class="ra-caption"><img class="alignnone wp-image-94590" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/chris-christie-and-bridget-kelly1.jpg" alt="chris-christie-and-bridget-kelly1" width="721" height="406" />Christie seen here with former top aide, Bridget Kelly, was she a policy maker or an implementor</h6>
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<p>Newark federal prosecutors presented an avalanche of evidence in the six-week trial, including text messages and emails showing that Baroni and Kelly had communicated about the petty political revenge plot before and during its implementation.<br />
The pair, along with former Port Authority official David Wildstein, concocted a scheme to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich after the Democrat had declined to endorse Christie&#8217;s reelection.<br />
Evidence showed that Wildstein, with Kelly&#8217;s go-ahead and Baroni&#8217;s approval, reduced the lanes from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge for four days in September 2013, paralyzing the town as a consequence.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-94581" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/christie-traffic-jams.jpg" alt="christie-traffic-jams" width="1200" height="800" /></p>
<h6><strong>NJ governor Chris Christie&#8217;s presidential campaign shipped water over the Bridgegate fallout. Is he out of the proverbial waters yet?</strong></h6>
<p>The defendants’ lawyers unsuccessfully argued throughout the trial that their clients were victims of Wildstein, a liar with unbridled ambition, by his own admission.<br />
Wildstein gave eight days of critical testimony, taking the stand under a cooperation agreement with the government. He said he saw Kelly&#8217;s orders as coming from the governor — including her notorious August 2013 command, &#8220;Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.&#8221;<br />
Wildstein, who has pleaded guilty for his role in the plot, has yet to be sentenced, said he and Baroni helped create a &#8220;cover story&#8221; regarding a study of traffic safety patterns on the bridge.<br />
During the trial, the defendants both claimed they had been tricked by Wildstein into believing a legitimate traffic study was underway on the GWB ,instead of a petty political revenge scheme.</p>
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<h6 class="ra-caption"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-94580" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/port-authority-officials-closed-lanes-leading-to-the-george-washington-bridge-in-2013-ostensibly-as-part-of-a-traffic-stud.jpg" alt="port-authority-officials-closed-lanes-leading-to-the-george-washington-bridge-in-2013-ostensibly-as-part-of-a-traffic-stud" width="1200" height="798" />Important north east corridor route, George Washington Bridge. The access lanes were snarled in Fort Lee for 4 straight days in 2013, in what turned out to be a political scheme.</h6>
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<p>Their other defense was &#8220;We did not act on our own.&#8221;<br />
With the looming shadow of Christie stalking every turn of the trial, Kelly and Baroni implied the wrong people were on trial.<br />
Kelly testified that she told Christie about the lane closures before and during their implementation. She said she felt as if she were living in an &#8220;alternate universe&#8221; after questions mounted about the closures and her colleagues in the governor&#8217;s office began feigning ignorance.<br />
Baroni recalled a conversation with Christie during the closures at an event at the 9/11 memorial. Wildstein had a different version of the same conversation and said Christie &#8220;laughed&#8221; when informed of the gridlock, which was political in nature.</p>
<h6><img class="alignnone wp-image-94588" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/kelly-and-baroni2.png" alt="Kelly and Baroni2.png" width="683" height="480" /></h6>
<h6><strong>Christie associates, Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni in front of reporters after their conviction on Friday.</strong></h6>
<p>Wildstein, Kelly and other witnesses testified that Christie lied when he said in a December press conference that no one in his office was involved in the closures.<br />
Few witnesses had positive things to say about the governor. He was portrayed as a hotheaded bully who used every arm of government for his own political ambition. The court saw a picture of how Christie fused the Port Authority, a bi-state agency dedicated to maintaining bridges, tunnels and airports in the New York area , into a powerful tool to curry favor and punish his adversaries.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-94592" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/david-wildstein8.jpg" alt="david-wildstein8" width="780" height="606" /></p>
<h6><strong>Convicted: Kelly and Baroni said David Wildstein (picture) was the architect and executor who co-opted them into the Bridgegate scheme. Wildstein pled guilty to his role, was convicted and is awaiting sentencing</strong></h6>
<p>Bridget Kelly, like Baroni in his own testimony, alluded to holes in Chris Christie defense of not receiving prior communication on the scheme, as she explained deleting implicating emails.<br />
“I deleted them because I was scared,” Kelly said, her voice quivering. “I have not shied away from that from day one. I’m not the only person, Mr. Khanna, to have deleted emails and text messages.”<br />
He reponse suggested that Christie&#8217;s cellphone, text messages and emails were either improperly withheld or destroyed, to shield the extent of his knowledgeKelly said she was &#8220;scared&#8221; of Christie. In one instance, he became enraged at her management of a press conference, hurled a water bottle at her and barked &#8220;What am I, a fu&#8211;ing game show host?&#8221; she said.</p>
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Gov Christie’s associates in a jam over Bridgegate: Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni found guilty for their roles in infamous traffic-snarling scheme
