PHILADELPHIA, P.A. — Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni received 18 months and 2 years, respectively, for their roles in the infamous Bridgegate scandal that crippled then-Governor Chris Christie’s presidential aspirations.
On Tuesday, the pair returned to federal court (this time in Philadelphia) as their attorneys fought to overturn their sentences.
The primary argument: while the pair’s behavior may have been “bad, wrongful and unjustifiable,” as characterized by former State Senator Baroni’s attorney Michael Levy explained in open court, “that is not the standard for a federal crime. This was bad conduct in search of a criminal theory on how to prosecute it.”
“This was nasty politics, but you can’t let federal prosecutors come in and decide that that’s a crime,” said Levy.
Kelly’s lawyer, Yaakov Roth, further noted how “[t]he right to intrastate travel is not clearly established” and, moreover, that they could not have misapplied public resources since “nothing was diverted to private use.”
Both defendant remain free pending the resolution of their appeals
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