In Bridgegate scandal, ex-crime buster Christie keeps getting away with murder

No U.S. president in modern American history has been lampooned as savagely as President Trump has -- this time for his adoration of Vladimir Putin, the Russian dictator and Syrian war criminal. This cartoon is from Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

"Prez Putin" is title of this cartoon from Bill Day of PoliticalCartoons.com.

 -- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

The Record and other New Jersey newspapers never tired of praising Chris Christie's record of convictions in public corruption cases when he was U.S. attorney from January 2002 to December 2008.

In fact, that record helped the anti-tax conservative get elected governor in 2009, and despite the Bridgegate scandal in 2013, Christie has somehow managed to escape the fate of those 130 public officials -- both Democrat and Republican -- who were convicted or pleaded guilty.

Now, as the Woodland Park daily reports on Page 1 today, the chief prosecution witness at last fall's Bridgegate trial was placed on three years of probation.

In return for his "truthful" testimony, former Port Authority executive David Wildstein also was ordered to serve 500 hours of community service, and pay $24,000 in fines and restitution for devising the September 2013 political-revenge plot at the George Washington Bridge.

He pleaded guilty to triggering the four-day traffic jam after Christie's deputy chief of staff sent him an email:

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

Public says 'guilty'

In the court of public opinion, Christie was convicted of inspiring the plot against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor, who refused to endorse the governor's reelection in 2013.

But Christie was never charged or required to testify under oath in court, and we don't know whether he is on the still-secret list of unindicted co-conspirators.

The scandal did doom his bid for the GOP presidential nomination. 

Still, Christie has since been appointed by President Trump to head a commission on the abuse of painkillers and an epidemic of overdose deaths.

And Trump has nominated Christie pal Christopher Wray to succeed James Comey, the FBI director the president fired in a bid to derail the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Wray was Christie's personal attorney in 2014, when the governor met secretly with the FBI about the bridge plot.

New Jersey taxpayers have forked over $2.1 million in fees to Wray's law firm in Atlanta for that representation.

Bridget Anne Kelly, left, and Bill Baroni were found guilty by a federal jury.

Truthful testimony

At the Bridgegate trial, Wildstein testified his only job at the Port Authority was to advance the interests of Christie, and that the governor knew of the lane closures and their purpose as they were happening.

In court on Wednesday, Wildstein said he and two other Christie ex-aides convicted in the plot had "put our faith and trust in a man [Christie] that neither earned it nor deserved it." 

A federal jury found former Port Authority official Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff, guilty of conspiracy and other charges, but they are free while they appeal their prison sentences of 2 years and 18 months, respectively.

Both U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton and federal prosecutors, who recommended a non-custodial sentence for their star witness, said Wildstein testified truthfully at the trial.

Outside the courthouse, acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick went further:

"We would not have called Mr. Wildstein or any other witness unless we were completely confident that the witnesses' testimony was truthful, accurate and corroborated by other evidence" (6A).

'Just not right'

An editorial in The Record says, "And for all his denials and lack of criminal charges, the public does not know what Christie knew and when" he knew it (16A).

Still, the paper's Editorial Board is more upset with Wildstein than it is with Christie, the worst governor in state history.

Remember, The Record is the only major daily in the state that didn't call for the GOP bully's resignation after he endorsed Trump for president in February 2016.

"Wildstein shouldn't be allowed to walk away," the Editorial Board pouts. "It's just not right."

New York's Daily News called Governor Christie a liar for his repeated claims of innocence in the September 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures.

Taxpayers laid out more than $10 million for a so-called internal investigation by Christie's own $650-an-hour lawyer, who cleared the governor of wrongdoing, but most New Jersey newspapers put no credibility it it, and labeled the report a whitewash. One exception was The Record. This cartoon is by Clay Bennett of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

As Christie cozies up to Trump, ex-allies won't be going to prison anytime soon

A 2014 cartoon from the New York Daily News goes to the crux of the Bridgegate scandal: Allies of Governor Christie executed a plan to close access lanes on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge to retaliate against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor, who didn't endorse his November 2013 re-election bid, and in the process violated the civil rights of drivers and others caught in five mornings of gridlock.

Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff, above, and co-defendant Bill Baroni were found guilty by a federal jury last Nov. 4 (photo by Mel Evans of the Associated Press)

HACKENSACK MAYOR

CLASHES WITH ZISA ALLIES

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Despite the big black headline on the front page of The Record along with three news or opinion pieces today, the story of the Bridgegate scandal is far from over.

It definitely isn't "prison time" -- as the main headline claims -- for Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, the former allies of Governor Christie who will appeal their convictions and sentences in the September 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures (1A).

That process can take up to two years, extending their freedom from 24-month and 18-month federal prison terms, respectively.

And David Wildstein, Christie's onetime Port Authority crony and the government's star witness, still faces sentencing on his 2015 guilty plea to conspiracy.

New probe?

Meanwhile, Assemblyman John Wisniewski called President Trump's announcement that Christie will head a new commission on opioid addiction an attempt to distract from Wednesday's sentencings of Baroni and Kelly.

Wisniewski also appealed to the Democratic majority in the state Legislature to re-open the state level investigation into Bridgegate.

Christie was never charged despite testimony from Wildstein, Baroni and Kelly the GOP thug knew about the lane closings as they were happening in September 2013.

"I will not allow myself to be the scapegoat," Kelly, 44, said after she was sentenced in Newark federal court on conspiracy, wire fraud and civil rights violations.

Baroni, 45, the former Port Authority executive who was found guilty on the same charges, said he was "wrong and I am truly sorry," but noted "a number of people outside of this courtroom were involved in Fort Lee that day -- some charged, some not."

Three days in row

Today's coverage is the third day in a row the Baroni and Kelly sentencing hearing appeared on Page 1.

Monday's news story reported federal prosecutors were asking for a 3-year prison term for each, and that both were asking for leniency.

On Tuesday, Columnist Charles Stile basically duplicated Monday's news story, and focused on the "first-time offenders" hoping for leniency.

Today, Stile's Page 1 column claims Christie "launched his latest political rehabilitation Wednesday as the compassionate and caring crusader, vowing to stomp out the opioid drug epidemic [italics added]" (1A).

This despite The Record reporting for months that Christie has vowed to end the epidemic, and just last month signed into law a bill mandating insurance coverage to give addicts immediate access to treatment (6A).

Meanwhile, Columnist Mike Kelly tries to calculate to the penny the "cost" of Bridgegate (10A), reportng incorrectly that the plan "to re-arrange the traffic cones" near the bridge "ended on Wednesday" in U.S. District Court in Newark.

Local news?

Hackensack residents aren't as interested in the Bergen County executive's $522 million spending plan as they are in the growing value of tax-exempt county property in the city (1L).

Unfortunately, Staff Writer Steve Janoski and his predecessors have never explored how that tax-exempt property -- including the newly opened Justice Center on Court Street -- unfairly shifts the property tax burden onto city residents.

Nor has The Record reported on what, if anything, the county has returned to the city to compensate for that growing tax burden. 

Hackensack news

Hackensack Mayor John Labrosse and Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin clashed over a teacher "who appears to have distributed campaign material on school time, which is a potential violation of school policy," Staff Writer Rodrigo Torrejon reports (3L). 

A photo of an angry, finger-pointing Salkin runs with the story on Tuesday's school board meeting.

Salkin has good reason to be angry with Labrosse, who headed a slate of City Council reformers elected in May 2013 over five candidates backed by the Zisa family political dynasty.

After the reformers were elected, they stripped Salkin, a Zisa ally, of his second job -- municipal prosecutor.

Salkin has never forgiven them, and he has appeared regularly at City Council meetings to criticize, scold and berate them.

Now, a new slate backed by the Zisas opposes the May 9 re-election bid of the mayor, three other incumbents and a fifth candidate, all of whom are running as the Labrosse Team for Lower Taxes and Honest Government.

Both Salkin and school board President Jason Nunnermacker are lawyers for the Zisa-backed slate, Hackensack United for Progress.