Bridgegate mastermind skates by while co-conspirators sentenced to prison

Bridgegate mastermind David Wildstein has gone back to blogging about New Jersey politics.

News 12 Staff

Apr 26, 2019, 12:28 AM

Updated 1,996 days ago

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There were very few people who came out on top after the whole Bridgegate scandal. But if there is one person who fared far better than anyone else - is was the so-called mastermind of the plot.
Bill Baroni, a former official at the Port Authority and Bridget Anne Kelly, a former aide to Gov. Chris Christie both received prison sentences. Baroni just began his 18-month sentence in federal prison. And a federal judge resentenced Kelly to 13 months in prison on Wednesday.
But David Wildstein, the man officials say organized the whole ordeal, got away with only three years of probation.
Kelly had strong words following her sentencing.
“Justice is not blind. It has favorites. It misses the mark. It misses the truth. And it picks winners and losers that are sometimes beyond anyone’s control,” she said.
Wildstein took a plea deal with federal prosecutors and agreed to testify. Wildstein said that he – along with Kelly and Baroni – planned to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing Christie’s 2013 re-election efforts, by closing lanes in the town that provide access to the George Washington Bridge. This, in turn, caused major gridlock in Fort Lee for several days.
Following the conclusion of the trial in 2016, Wildstein went back to his old roots – blogging about New Jersey politics. His website, NJ Globe, seems to be thriving – covering a wide variety of political ongoings in the Garden State. But there is one item that is not covered on the site – the Bridgegate scandal.
Kelly says she plans to appeal her sentence to the United State Supreme Court.
Christie says he never had any knowledge of the plot. He was never charged.