Bridget Anne Kelly was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison on Wednesday for her role in the New Jersey Bridgegate scandal, and while standing outside the courthouse, she asked why her onetime boss, former Gov. Chris Christie (R), got off scot-free.
Prosecutors accused Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, of purposely closing lanes near the George Washington Bridge in 2013 in order to cause a traffic nightmare and get back at the town's Democratic mayor for not endorsing Christie's re-election. They were found guilty in November 2016, but after a federal appeals court tossed out part of the corruption case against her, Kelly had to be re-sentenced, NJ.com reports.
Kelly has long said Christie, who was never charged in the scandal, and others knew about the plan and did not attempt to intervene. "How did all these men all escape justice?" she asked. "Chris Christie was allowed, without rebuttal from anyone, to say out of one side of his mouth that I was a low-level staffer. A woman only good enough to plan menus and invite people to events. And then say out of the other side that I was somehow powerful enough to shut down the George Washington Bridge."
Christie, she continued, is "a bully, and the days of you calling me a liar and destroying my life are over." A spokesman for the former governor told NJ.com he "had no knowledge of this scheme prior to or during these lane realignments, and had no role in authorizing them."