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The Fort Lee lane closure scandal, better known as Bridgegate, was a political scandal in the U.S. state of New Jersey in 2013 and 2014. It involved a staff member and political appointees of then-governor Chris Christie colluding to create traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey by closing lanes at the main toll plaza for the upper level of the George Washington Bridge. On September 9, 2013, two of three toll lanes for a local street entrance were closed during morning rush hour. Local officials, emergency services, and the public were not notified of the lane closures, which Fort Lee declared a threat to public safety. The resulting gridlock ended when the two lanes were reopened on September 13 by an order from Port Authority Executive Director and Democrat from New York, Patrick Foye. He said that the "hasty and ill-informed decision" could have endangered lives and violated federal and state laws. It has been suggested that the lanes had been closed to cause the massive traffic problem for political reasons, and especially theorized that they were a retributive attack against Mayor of Fort Lee Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who had not supported Christie as a candidate in the 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election. The ensuing investigations centered on several of Christie's appointees and staff, including David Wildstein, who ordered the lanes closed, and Bill Baroni, who had told the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee that the closures were for a traffic study. An investigation led by U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman resulted in a nine-count indictment against Bridget Anne Kelly, the deputy chief of staff, Baroni and Wildstein. Wildstein entered a guilty plea, and testified against Baroni and Kelly, who were found guilty on all counts in November 2016. David Samson pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy in July 2016, for acts unrelated to the lane closures but unearthed by the federal Bridgegate investigation. At the time of the scandal, Christie was a leading contender for the 2016 Republican nomination for President. The scandal was widely cited as a major factor in the early demise of Christie's 2016 presidential ambitions, and he dropped out of the race after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary. Christie described the scandal as "a factor" in why he was bypassed by Donald Trump as the vice presidential nominee. Both the prosecution and the defense in the trial of two of Christie's former aides argued that Christie knew of his close associates' involvement in a plan to shut down lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge as it was happening, and that the closings were to punish Sokolich for declining to support Christie's reelection bid. This was the first time Christie had been officially accused of contemporaneous knowledge of the plot. The defendants in the case appealed their convictions, and in 2019 the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari and heard the case (known as Kelly v. United States) in 2020. One defendant, Bill Baroni, having already begun serving his federal prison term, asked for immediate release. In May 2020 the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the convictions, judging that the defendants could not have violated the fraud statutes they were charged under since they had not obtained "money or property". Background The George Washington Bridge, a double-decked toll bridge, is the busiest motor-vehicle bridge in the world, with a toll charge for traffic from New Jersey to New York. At the time, there were 29 operating toll lanes, spread among three toll plazas. At the main toll plaza for the upper level, there were twelve toll lanes and a Fort Lee entrance at Martha Washington Way (also called Park Avenue). During rush hours, for at least the previous 30 years,: 86  the three lanes located furthest to the right (the south end of the toll plaza) were ordinarily reserved for local traffic entering from Fort Lee and the surrounding communities. This local traffic was segregated by movable traffic cones from the heavier traffic of the major highways. There were other Fort Lee street entrances, which did not have dedicated toll lanes, to the lower and upper levels of the bridge. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ or simply the PA), the owner of the bridge, was overseen by a Board of Commissioners. Under an informal power-sharing agreement, the governor of New Jersey chose the chairman of the board and the deputy executive director, while the governor of New York chose the vice-chairman and executive director. Chris Christie, a Republican, was first elected Governor of New Jersey in November 2009 and re-elected in November 2013. During his first term, he appointed Bill Baroni as deputy executive director of the PA. David Wildstein, a local politician and political blogger who had known Christie during high school, was hired by Baroni based on Christie's referral and recommendation in May 2010. As director of interstate capital projects, Wildstein was New Jersey's second highest executive at the Port Authority, and often substituted for Baroni at major meetings. Events During the week of August 4, 2013, Christie met with David Samson, Christie's appointed chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority. The deputy speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, John Wisniewski, who, as chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee had been leading the Assembly's investigation into the closures, alleged that David Wildstein, the Christie appointee who ordered the closures, must have believed the meeting was related to the lane closures, because a reference to the meeting was included in the subpoenaed documents Wildstein submitted in which all information not pertaining to the Fort Lee lane closures had been redacted. On August 13, Bridget Anne Kelly, deputy chief of staff in Christie's office, sent an eight-word e-mail to David Wildstein that read, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee." Wildstein responded to Kelly's e-mail: "Got it." On September 6, Wildstein instructed George Washington Bridge manager Robert Durando not to tell anyone in Fort Lee about the upcoming closure, not even the police. When Durando questioned the order, which he thought was "odd" since he had never been instructed in his 35-year career not to tell host town officials about an event that would disrupt traffic, Wildstein told him "it would impact the study" if people knew and Wildstein "wanted to see what would naturally happen". Wildstein sent an e-mail the same day to Kelly informing her that Christie had approved $60,000 to fund a traffic study for Springfield in Union County. The Democratic mayor, David Amlen, did not endorse Christie for re-election and was not informed of the approval of their requested traffic study until after Christie won re-election. Closure On Monday, September 9, 2013, prior to the morning rush hour on the first day of the school year, two of the three dedicated toll lanes .... Discover the Patrick Baroni popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Patrick Baroni books.