A former loyalist to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie arrived at court Friday to plead guilty to charges related to creating a traffic jam near the George Washington Bridge for political purposes, a person with knowledge of the case told The Associated Press.
The person wasn't authorized to release the information before the hearing and spoke on condition of anonymity.
David Wildstein was an official at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at the time of the tie-ups. It's not clear what charge or charges Wildstein will plead to. He will be the first person to admit to committing a crime in causing the series of politically motivated traffic jams in 2013.
Federal prosecutors announced an 11 a.m. court hearing in Newark and an early afternoon news conference. The office, which Christie led before stepping down in 2008 to run for governor, has not said who will appear in court and didn't release any other details on the investigation.
So we don't even know what crime was charged here, but this is one of the most despicable abuses of government power in a long time in the sheer wanton cruelty of it. To punish the people of a city who must commute into New York because of a political disagreement with the leaders of the city (who work in town and don't commute) is mind-bogglingly evil.
Extending the presumption of innocence, I will assume for now that Gov. Christie knew nothing of this particular operation. Even so, a leader establishes a tone and a culture for his office. He does that through his own words and actions and through his selection of the people to staff the office. This office had a culture where someone could do something so cynically, despicably cruel, and nobody goes running to the boss to say, "Oh my God, do you know what this jackass is doing?!" Is that the kind of office culture we want in the West Wing?
Update:
conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States...Professor Douglas Berman, who sees every issue as a sentencing question, asks in the comments what sentence I think is appropriate for this crime. Absent aggravating circumstances of death, kidnapping, or aggravated sexual abuse (which aren't present here), the max under §241 is ten years. I'd be good with that, though I am sure Wildstein has plea-bargained for much less. He surely gets the "first to plead discount" that is regrettably necessary in prosecuting conspiracies.
Update 2: The U.S. Attorney in New Jersey has this press release, with links to the indictments at the end.
Baroni and Kelly are each charged with conspiring to misuse, and actually misusing, property of an organization receiving federal benefits; conspiring to commit, and actually committing, wire fraud; conspiring to injure and oppress certain individuals' civil rights, and acting under color of law to deprive certain individuals of their civil rights. All of the charges relate to the defendants' alleged scheme to manufacture traffic problems in Fort Lee by, without public warning, reducing from three to one the number of local access lanes, located in Fort Lee, to the upper level of the George Washington Bridge, and the toll booths servicing those lanes. It is alleged this was done to punish Mayor Sokolich for not endorsing Gov. Christie's re-election bid. Wildstein pleaded guilty to conspiring to misuse the property of an organization receiving federal benefits and conspiring to injure and oppress certain individuals' civil rights in connection with his role in causing traffic problems to punish Mayor Sokolich.
I would be VERY interested to hear, from Kent and Bill and others, just what kind of sentence you think would be fitting for this "mind-bogglingly evil" crime.
Maybe defense counsel will call Mr. Wildstein's third grade teacher at the sentencing hearing. If it's good enough for Dzhokhar......
Let the punishment fit the crime as they say. He should be banished to the far suburbs and only allowed to drive during rush hour.
^^That's brilliant! And quite possibly worse than prison.
1. Kent, thanks for indicating that you think a 10-year prison sentence would be appropriate in this case. (And, as I trust you realize, once a defendant has admitted guilt to a criminal charge, everything that follows becomes a sentencing issue. Moreover, as you note, the charging and plea bargaining decisions by the federal prosecutors in this case are sure to have significant formal and functional sentencing consequences.)
2. Bill, with or without Mr. Wildstein's third grade record, I remain hopeful that you will follow Kent's lead and indicate what sort of sentence you would consider fitting in this case.
3. Further Bill, am I wrong to wonder, especially given Kent's astute comments that this "cynically, despicably cruel" behavior took place under Gov Christie's watch, if some similar kind of bullying behavior might have been considered acceptable in the US Attorney Office in New Jersey when Christie was in charge from 2002 to 2008?