DREAM Act Portal Forum - 2 Ex-Christie Allies Are Convicted in Bridgegate

dunno know if this will slow down Trump momentum at all since Christie was supposed to play a a huge role in the Trump administration. No wonder his FAT ass jumped on the trump train so early on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/ny...tion.html?_r=0

NEWARK — A federal jury convicted two former allies of Gov. Chris Christie on Friday of all charges stemming from a bizarre scheme to close access lanes at the George Washington Bridge to punish a New Jersey mayor who declined to endorse the governor’s re-election.

Though only the two defendants, Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni, were tried in the so-called Bridgegate case, the scandal surrounding the lane closings in September 2013 left Mr. Christie deeply wounded. It helped cripple his presidential candidacy this year and tarnished his reputation as a key surrogate in Donald J. Trump’s Republican presidential campaign.

With the trial set to unfold in the weeks before Election Day, aides to Mr. Trump persuaded him not to pick Mr. Christie as his vice-presidential nominee. The governor now leads Mr. Trump’s transition team, but the Trump campaign said after the verdict on Friday that Mr. Christie had “changed his schedule” and would not make appearances in New Hampshire on Saturday.

Testimony at the trial indicated that Mr. Christie knew about the lane closings as they were causing major traffic jams in Fort Lee, N.J., over five days, and that he was deeply involved in covering up the plot even as he continued to insist — as he did again after the verdict was announced — that he knew nothing about it until months after it was over.

The George Washington Bridge Scandal
What occurred after a small borough’s colossal traffic backup
Jurors’ Questions Hint at Division in Trial on Lane Closings
NOV 1
Bridge Case Verdict May Hinge on Officials Who Weren’t Tried
OCT 31
Bridge Scandal Has Become Thorny Issue for Another Governor: Cuomo
OCT 30
In Closing Words at Bridge Trial, Prosecution Returns to a Familiar Email
OCT 28
Judge in Bridge Case Abruptly Adjourns Trial Before Closing Arguments
OCT 27
See More »

Throughout the seven-week trial, it often seemed as if both the government and the defense were prosecuting Mr. Christie in absentia. Witnesses laid bare a relentlessly political operation in the governor’s office and portrayed him as a fiery-tempered leader who gave orders to freeze out enemies and once threw a water bottle at Ms. Kelly, who was a deputy chief of staff to Mr. Christie, during a meeting.

Mr. Christie’s aides began to use government resources to secure political endorsements in 2010, the year he entered office, with an eye toward winning not just a broad re-election victory, but also a presidential race six years away. The governor’s loyalists preyed on grief over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and misused hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars from what they called “a goody bag” to get support from Democrats as Mr. Christie, a Republican, tried to build a case that he had the wide appeal needed to win the White House.

The federal investigation into the lane closings has led to guilty pleas by two other confidants of Mr. Christie.

David Wildstein, who was installed as the governor’s enforcer at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge, pleaded guilty to orchestrating the lane closings and became the prosecution’s chief witness. David Samson, a former New Jersey attorney general whom Mr. Christie appointed as chairman of the authority, pleaded guilty to using his power to get United Airlines to create a special flight to an airport near a home he had in South Carolina.