U.S. Says for First Time That Christie Knew of Bridge Plot
- Kelly, Baroni accused of tying up traffic to punish mayor
- Government witness described as ‘vicious guy,’ a ‘bully’
Bridget Anne Kelly, the former deputy chief of staff to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, arrives at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Courthouse on Sept. 19, 2016, in Newark, New Jersey.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was told about politically motivated traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge as they crippled a town whose mayor refused to back his re-election, a U.S. prosecutor said for the first time since the scandal became public.
The assertion came at the start of a trial of Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni, who are accused of shutting bridge access lanes to paralyze traffic in Fort Lee, New Jersey, during the first week of school in September 2013. Prosecutors say they sought to punish Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who didn’t back Christie, a Republican.