NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - The Latest on the sentencings in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing trial (all times local):
2:05 p.m.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s office is defending itself after a judge cited the venomous culture of his administration while sentencing two of his former aides in a political revenge plot.
Christie spokesman Brian Murray says the work of Christie staffers has been “honest, honorable, bi-partisan and effective.” He says Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni’s actions were a “sad and unacceptable exception to the way the office has conducted itself.”
Kelly and Baroni were sentenced Wednesday to prison for creating a colossal traffic jam near the George Washington Bridge linking New Jersey and New York in 2013 to punish a mayor who didn’t endorse Christie’s re-election.
Judge Susan Wigenton told Kelly she got “caught up in a culture and an environment that lost its way.”
Christie wasn’t charged in the plot.
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2 a.m.
Two former aides to New Jersey’s governor have been sentenced to jail for creating traffic jams at the busiest bridge in the United States for political revenge, bringing the case to a close.
But appeals and a pledge from one of them that the fight isn’t over promise to keep the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal hanging over Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s final year in office.
Bridget Kelly told reporters after she was sentenced to 18 months in prison Wednesday that she won’t be a scapegoat.
Her attorney pointed out that her testimony that she told Christie about the traffic jams while they were happening was never contradicted.
Christie hasn’t been charged and denies that Kelly told him about the lane closures.
Co-defendant Bill Baroni was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison.
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