By Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Former Port Authority deputy executive director Bill Baroni, now in federal prison serving an 18-month sentence for his role in the Bridgegate corruption scandal, filed a motion early Monday morning to be released on bail after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review his conviction.
“Based on the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case, Baroni respectfully moves for immediate release on bail from the sentence he is currently serving, pending the outcome of the Supreme Court case,” they wrote in a six-page brief seeking release.
Federal prosecutors did not oppose the request.
Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, one-time deputy chief of staff to then-Gov. Chris Christie were both found guilty in November 2016 of fraud and conspiracy in connection with a scheme of political retribution for their role in shutting down local toll lanes of the George Washington Bridge to create huge traffic tie-ups in Fort Lee.
Prosecutors said the end game was to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, when the Democratic mayor back away from an expected endorsement of Christie, a Republican, during the governor’s 2013 re-election campaign.
The governor was never charged with any wrongdoing and denied any knowledge of the plan.
U.S. Supreme Court to hear Bridgegate appeal. Stunning move keeps alive case that dogged Christie.
Bridget Anne Kelly, the former aide to the governor, will get a final chance to argue she was wrongfully convicted.
Attorneys for both Kelly and Baroni have argued that whatever happened at the George Washington Bridge, it was not a federal crime. They said in prosecuting the two, the government cited laws normally used in theft and bribery cases to level charges where no theft or bribery was alleged to have occurred.
