The Supreme Court has overturned the convictions of two senior aides to former New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie over the infamous “Bridgegate” scandal. In 2016, Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni were convicted of conspiring to create a traffic jam to punish the mayor of Fort Lee for declining to endorse Christie’s gubernatorial reelection bid. Christie denied involvement in the plot. On Thursday, Supreme Court justices ruled unanimously that although Christie’s aides engaged in “deception, corruption” and “abuse of power,” they did not violate federal wire fraud statutes. Chris Christie is a close ally of President Trump. He made headlines this week when he urged Americans to return to their jobs despite the raging coronavirus pandemic, saying, “There are going to be deaths no matter what.” He was speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash.
Chris Christie: “We sent our young men during World War II over to Europe, out to the Pacific, knowing — knowing — that many of them would not come home alive. And we decided to make that sacrifice because what we were standing up for was the American way of life. In the very same way now, we have to stand up for the American way of life.”