Where are the key players in the Bridgegate scandal now, 10 years later?
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In the decade since some politically motivated traffic problems tied up the George Washington Bridge at rush hour in September 2013, the people involved have been thrust into the spotlight, and endured their fair share of scrutiny for their actions, inactions and comments.
While some of the scandal's major players have had an uphill battle in restoring their names and credibility, others are just a little worse for wear.
Those traffic problems, of course, came to be known as Bridgegate, a scandal concocted by those in former Gov. Chris Christie’s inner circle to penalize Fort Lee’s longtime Mayor Mark Sokolich for supporting Barbara Buono, the Democrat on the ballot in that year’s gubernatorial race, rather than the incumbent Christie.
The story, originally reported by NorthJersey.com and The Record, goes that after Sokolich refused to support Christie’s reelection campaign, a group of Christie insiders took it upon themselves to punish Sokolich — and North Jersey commuters — by shutting down two access lanes to the bridge.
The cover story for the closure was that the Port Authority was conducting a “traffic study.” The lanes were closed on Sept. 9, 2013, the first day of school in Fort Lee, and caused massive tie-ups in the borough. Sokolich got no reply when he reached out to Christie's top executive at the Port Authority.
The lanes were reopened on Sept. 13, 2013, after Pat Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority, appointed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, ordered it.
Years of state and federal investigations followed. Charges were filed, and trials, verdicts, prison terms and appeals ensued. By 2020, all of the major players were cleared and life moved on.
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Chris Christie
Christie was never found to have knowledge of the plot, and while some believe the scandal derailed his presidential ambitions in 2016, he’s making another go of it in the Republican campaign for the 2024 nomination.
In the immediate aftermath of the scandal, he won a second term by a wide margin and then started cleaning house. Both of the men involved at the Port Authority were gone by the end of the year, and the deputy chief of staff involved was fired just days into 2014.
But what most remember from Christie at the time is the marathon news conference he held in January 2014 where he repeatedly apologized to the public.
He rebounded and worked for the Trump administration and then as a cable news pundit for years.
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Bridget Anne Kelly
Christie is not the only one who has run for office since the scandal. His former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, ran for Bergen County clerk in 2021 and nearly unseated Democrat John Hogan.
Kelly is the staffer who sent probably the most quoted email in New Jersey history in August 2013, when she declared that it was “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee." Christie announced that she had been fired in January 2014, but things only got more complicated for Kelly from there.
In May 2015 she was indicted on federal criminal charges for allegedly using the bridge as a political weapon and then covering it up. Nearly a year later she sought to have the charges dismissed, arguing that she didn’t break any laws, but a judge ordered the case to trial in June 2016.
The trial started in September 2016, and on Nov. 4, after less than a week of deliberation, Kelly was found guilty on all seven counts. In March 2017, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison but was allowed to remain free on bail during the appeal process.
In November 2018, the civil rights convictions were dismissed but the fraud convictions remained. Kelly appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In April 2019, her sentence was reduced to 13 months, but she remained free waiting for the Supreme Court decision. That decision came in May 2020. The guilty verdict was overturned.
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Bill Baroni
The only person to spend any time in prison for the scandal, Bill Baroni is the furthest removed from the spotlight now.
Though he did make an appearance at Kelly’s election night rally in 2021, Baroni now works mostly in efforts to reform prisons. Before his Port Authority appointment by Christie, Baroni served in both the Assembly and state Senate.
At the time of the lane closures, Baroni was the deputy executive director at the Port Authority. He didn’t respond to calls from Sokolich as the traffic problems unfolded, and in November 2013 he testified to a state legislative panel that the closings were part of a "traffic study." He was forced to resign that year.
Baroni was Kelly’s co-defendant throughout the federal trial, and in March 2017 he received a two-year prison sentence. After the civil rights convictions were dismissed, Baroni’s sentence was reduced to 18 months. He announced he would give up his appeals and reported to a federal prison in Pennsylvania in April 2019.
The U.S. Supreme Court voted to hear Kelly's appeal, with Baroni as a co-defendant, that summer, and the decision to overturn the conviction came the following year.
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Bill Stepien
Bill Stepien served as Christie’s campaign manager for both of his gubernatorial elections and as a political consultant. Christie fired him in January 2014.
Stepien was never charged with involvement in the plot, and although he wasn’t called to testify in the federal trial of Kelly and Baroni, his name was often invoked. Emails released during the investigation showed Stepien mocking Sokolich and other political opponents.
But Stepien wasn’t out of the game for long. He found another brash Republican candidate to rally behind, former President Donald Trump, and worked for his administration. Stepien later served as campaign manager for Trump in 2020 and was among the campaign officials called to testify at the Jan. 6 hearings.
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David Wildstein
While serving as the director of interstate capital projects at the Port Authority, David Wildstein was the brains behind the politically motivated operation and later became a key witness for the government in the trail against Kelly and Baroni.
In 2013, Wildstein was the recipient of the infamous “traffic problems” email and told Port Authority workers to prepare to close two access lanes from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge. He also told them not to tell Fort Lee police or local officials beforehand.
When the media started asking questions about the closures, Wildstein sent out a statement to be released that the closings were part of a review of "traffic safety patterns." He resigned in December 2013, and the post was eliminated in February 2014.
In May 2015, Wildstein opted to plead guilty to two conspiracy charges. In July 2017, he was sentenced to three years' probation, 500 hours of community service and more than $20,000 in fines and restitution.
Since then, Wildstein has made a name for himself running a politically focused news site, writing about local and state government throughout New Jersey.
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Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bridgegate scandal: Where are the major players in 2023?
