The court said there was evidence of wrongdoing but not of a federal crime.

By Adam Liptak of the New York Times
May 7, 2020 Updated 11:03 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously overturned the convictions of two defendants in the “Bridgegate” scandal.

The case resulted from a decision in 2013 by associates of Chris Christie, then the governor of New Jersey, to close access lanes to the George Washington Bridge to punish a political opponent. The resulting scandal helped doom Mr. Christie’s presidential ambitions.

Closing the lanes was a wrong, the Supreme Court ruled, but not a federal crime.

The associates, Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni, were convicted of wire fraud and related federal charges for their roles in concocting a “traffic study” that caused extreme delays for motorists seeking to cross the bridge, the busiest in the world, from Fort Lee, N.J., to Manhattan.

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The mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, had rebuffed a request to endorse Mr. Christie, and this was his punishment.

“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Ms. Kelly, an aide to Mr. Christie, wrote in an email to officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge. Mr. Christie has denied any knowledge of the scheme.

Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the court, said “the evidence the jury heard no doubt shows wrongdoing — deception, corruption, abuse of power.”

“But the federal fraud statutes at issue do not criminalize all such conduct,” she wrote. “Under settled precedent, the officials could violate those laws only if an object of their dishonesty was to obtain the Port Authority’s money or property.”

But, she wrote, “the realignment of the toll lanes was an exercise of regulatory power — something this Court has already held fails to meet the statutes’ property requirement.”

The controversy helped sink the presidential campaign of Mr. Christie in 2016, allowing Donald Trump to become the face of the anti-Washington sentiment that the governor could have otherwise tapped into.

In a statement on Thursday, Mr. Christie said he had been vindicated.

“As many contended from the beginning, and as the Court confirmed today, no federal crimes were ever committed in this matter by anyone in my administration,” he said. “It is good for all involved that today justice has finally been done.”

He went on to blame the Justice Department under President Barack Obama and the U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, Paul J. Fishman.

He added: “This case was driven by a U.S. attorney and Justice Department in search of a predetermined and biased outcome. In recklessly pursuing that outcome, they violated the oath sworn by every member of the Department of Justice.”

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting from New York.

Adam Liptak covers the Supreme Court and writes Sidebar, a column on legal developments. A graduate of Yale Law School, he practiced law for 14 years before joining The Times in 2002. @adamliptak • Facebook

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