1:57
- ABC News
- May 1, 2015
Gov. Christie's Ally Pleads Guilty, 2 Others Indicted in Bridge Scandal
Federal prosecutors made the announcement today in Newark.
1:57
Wildstein will be released on $100,000 bond. He will be sentenced on Aug. 6. Wildstein faces up to 15 years in prison and fines, according to prosecutors.
Newark's U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said the feds don't expect to charge any additional people in connection with the lane closings. Other parts of the investigation, he said, are ongoing. Fishman also declined to say who came up with the scheme.
“Public officials must use government resources for proper government purposes,” Fishman said. “The indictment alleges, and Wildstein admitted, that the three defendants used Port Authority resources to exact political retribution against a public official who would not endorse the Governor for re-election, and concocted and promoted a bogus cover story to execute their plan and to cover their tracks.”
The probe that started with unannounced lane closings has, according to some, hobbled Christie as he seeks the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/abc_sawyer_christie_kb_140327_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Wildstein was Christie’s enforcer and go-to guy at the Port Authority, which runs the New York City-area airports as well as the bridges and tunnels that connect New York and New Jersey. According to emails that were revealed in January 2014, Wildstein shut down two out of three local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge at the direction of Kelly. Their alleged goal was political payback against the mayor of Fort Lee -- where the bridge is anchored in New Jersey -- because the mayor would not endorse Christie’s re-election bid.
\"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,\" Kelly wrote in an August 2013 email.
With those words disclosed, what had been a local political brush fire engulfed the pugnacious New Jersey governor. He fired Kelly and cast aside Bill Stepien, the man who ran his political organization and was expected to helm Christie’s impending presidential campaign.
Attorneys hired by Christie soon determined that the governor had no role in the scandal. But that did nothing to quiet matters.
In December, Christie himself was interrogated for more than seven hours by federal investigators probing the bridge scandal. He has denied having any role in the lane closings and has repeatedly said he did nothing wrong.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/ap_nikki_haley_chris_christie_jc_141105_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Last year, the governor told ABC’s Diane Sawyer he didn’t even “inspire” his aides and loyalists to shut down lanes to the world’s busiest bridge.
\"This is not something that I think I inspired, and to the extent that any of them thought that this was acceptable conduct, then I fell short,\" Christie said at the time.
The governor also said that he does not believe the bridge affair was even done on his behalf.
\"I don’t believe it was for me,\" he said.
The New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI have spent 16 months investigating the September 2013 lane closings, which caused unprecedented traffic jams for the better part of a week and crippled Fort Lee.
The scandal thrust Christie and his inner circle into a crisis first marked by a marathon news conference and then two months of dodging questions on the incident. Christie has since returned to public view, but his popularity among voters is at all-time lows and most observers see his chances of winning the GOP nomination as nearly non-existent.
In addition to the federal investigation in New Jersey, Christie and his aides are still facing continued scrutiny from a series of other probes being conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney in New York City, the New Jersey State Legislature and the Port Authority Inspector General's Office over the lane closures. The results of the FBI probe could also be turned over to state prosecutors in the event they want to file their own charges in connection with the lane closing.
Get real-time updates as this story unfolds. To start, just \"star\" this story in ABC News' phone app. Download ABC News for iPhone here or ABC News for Android here.
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