A court-ordered deadline for revealing the so-called conspirator list in New Jersey’s 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal has been pushed back to noon Tuesday, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton’s decision comes after a man named among those involved filed a last-minute motion Thursday night to prevent the list from being made public — hours before the original deadline of noon Friday.
Wigenton earlier had sided with media organizations requesting a list of those involved but not indicted in the lane closure scandal at the George Washington Bridge to be made public.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie became engulfed by “Bridgegate” shortly after winning a second term nearly three years ago. Emails and texts from top aides show they requested that two lanes onto the bridge be shut down in September 2013, causing massive traffic jams in Fort Lee after the town’s Democratic mayor declined to endorse Christie’s re-election.
Late Thursday, Jenny Kramer, an attorney for Chadbourne & Parke law firm, wrote a letter to the judge on behalf of client “John Doe,” arguing that releasing his name would brand him a “felon without due process of the law, causing him immediate and irreparable harm.”
“Doe moves to anonymously intervene in this action and stay the Order because the Conspirator Letter, which identifies him as an unindicted co-conspirator in the criminal plot to close access lanes to the George Washington Bridge as an act of political retaliation, brands him as a criminal without due process of law,” Kramer wrote.
Following the letter from Kramer, Bruce Rosen, attorney for the media groups that requested the list be made public, said: “We believe the filing to be without merit and will oppose it vigorously.”
He could not be immediately reached for comment following the deadline extension Friday.
The U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey said that it would comply with the Tuesday deadline?.
A lengthy investigation into whether people close to the governor closed lanes to create traffic at the George Washington Bridge as an act of political retribution yielded charges against Bridget Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, the former deputy director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, as well as a guilty plea on a conspiracy charge from David Wildstein, a Christie ally. Kelly and Baroni have both pleaded not guilty.
Christie has not been charged and has denied any knowledge of the closures.
Kramer argued that her client’s anonymity “is critical to preserve his constitutional rights against being branded with a ‘badge of infamy’ through criminal accusations he has no means of contesting.”
As the scandal swirled around these individuals, investigators found a number of co-conspirators who were not charged, said Paul Fishman, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
He did not name the co-conspirators or elaborate on why they were not charged but said that they could be identified at a later date.
Kramer was an assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey from 2005 until 2015, according to her profile on the Chardbourne & Parke website.
Christie was New Jersey’s U.S. attorney from 2002 until 2008 before going on to become governor.