But in a partial victory for the defense, the court cleared the two, Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, of two of the seven counts they had been found guilty of in 2016. The decision sends their case back to the lower court in Newark and opens the chance that their prison sentences could be lessened.

Kelly, the former deputy chief of staff for New Jersey’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for her role in “Bridgegate,” as the incident came to be known. Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was sentenced to two years in prison. Both have been out on bail as their appeals continued.

Michael Critchley, a lawyer for Kelly, said that while her legal team was pleased some of the charges had been rejected, they were disappointed that all of them had not and “intend to petition the United States Supreme Court to review this case.”

A jury in Newark found Kelly and Baroni had illegally used public resources to close lanes of the George Washington Bridge with the intention of causing epic gridlock in Fort Lee during the first days of the school year. Their apparent motive was to punish Mayor Mark J. Sokolich of Fort Lee, a Democrat, for failing to support Christie’s re-election campaign.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit on Tuesday upheld the convictions on counts related to wire fraud and conspiracy to misuse property of an organization receiving federal benefits, namely the Port Authority. But the judges found the lower court had overreached in ruling that Baroni and Kelly were guilty of a conspiracy against the civil rights of New Jersey residents, because federal law does not clearly establish a right to interstate travel.

The U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey said it was “reviewing the opinion and is grateful for the court’s consideration of all of the issues raised in the appeal.”

The New York Times

Sharon Otterman © 2018 The New York Times