William E. Baroni Jr. is an American Republican Party politician and law professor. He represented the 14th legislative district in the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly. In 2010,New Jersey Governor Chris Christie named Baroni to serve as the Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Christopher James Christie is an American politician and former federal prosecutor who served as the 55th governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party,he was the United States Attorney for New Jersey from 2002 to 2008 and a Morris County commissioner from 1995 to 1997. He was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and 2024.
William Stepien is an American political consultant who served as the campaign manager for Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign beginning in July of that year. A member of the Republican Party,he was the White House Director of Political Affairs in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2018.
David Samson is an American lawyer who served as New Jersey Attorney General under Democratic governor Jim McGreevey from 2002 to 2003. He served as the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) from 2011 until his resignation on March 28,2014 in the aftermath of the Fort Lee lane closure scandal. Samson is a partner and founding member of the law firm Wolff &Samson from which he resigned in April 2015,and had been an ally of Governor Chris Christie.
Ralph Joseph Marra Jr. is an American lawyer who served as the Acting United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. He held this position from the resignation of Chris Christie in December 2008 until the appointment of Paul J. Fishman in October 2009. In January 2010,after Christie became Governor of New Jersey,Marra was appointed to a top legal position in the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. After serving about a decade,he became senior counsel at Calcagni &Kanefsky,LLP in Newark,New Jersey.
Kimberly Ann Guadagno is an American lawyer and politician who served as the first lieutenant governor and 33rd secretary of state of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018.
Operation Bid Rig was a long-term investigation into political corruption in New Jersey conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,the Internal Revenue Service,and the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 2002 to 2014.
Paula T. Dow is an American lawyer and judge. She served as the 58th Attorney General of New Jersey,appointed by incoming Governor Chris Christie. Her nomination to a full term was confirmed by the New Jersey Senate in February 2010. She is the first African-American woman to be attorney general in state history.
Chris Christie took office as the 55th Governor of New Jersey on January 19,2010,began his second term on January 21,2014,and left office on January 16,2018.
The New York divorce coercion gang was a Haredi Jewish group who kidnapped,and in some cases tortured,Jewish men in the New York metropolitan area to force them to grant their wives religious divorces (gittin). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) broke up the group after conducting a sting operation against the gang in October 2013. The sting resulted in the prosecution of four men,three of whom were convicted in late 2015.
The Fort Lee lane closure scandal,better known as Bridgegate,was a political scandal in the U.S. state of New Jersey in 2013 and 2014. It involved a staff member and political appointees of then-governor Chris Christie colluding to create traffic jams in Fort Lee,New Jersey by closing lanes at the main toll plaza for the upper level of the George Washington Bridge.
David Wildstein is an American businessman,former Republican Party politician,and the founder and editor-in-chief of the New Jersey political news website New Jersey Globe. A former mayor of Livingston,New Jersey,he served as a senior official in the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey during the administration of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie until 2013,when Wildstein resigned in the midst of a scandal involving traffic lanes closures. On May 1,2015,he pleaded guilty to two federal felony counts of conspiracy as part of a plea agreement,but his conviction was later overturned.
Bridget Anne Kelly is the former deputy chief of staff to the Governor of New Jersey,Chris Christie,known for her participation in the Bridgegate scandal.
Regina M. Egea served as chief of staff to governor of New Jersey Chris Christie. She was appointed in December 2013 and resigned in April 2016. She is the president of Garden State Initiative,a public policy think tank based in Morristown,New Jersey,which was founded in 2017.
Kevin O'Dowd is a New Jersey public servant and political figure who served as Chief of Staff to the Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie. He was considered,but not formally nominated,for the position of Attorney General of the State of New Jersey.
Philip Kwon is deputy counsel for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and a previous nominee for the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Walter Francis "Wally" Timpone is a former Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court,having been sworn on May 2,2016. He was nominated to the Supreme Court by Governor Chris Christie and confirmed by the New Jersey Senate in April 2016. He resigned on August 31,2020.
William J. Brennan,known as Bill Brennan,is a former firefighter,lawyer,and activist. He was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor of New Jersey in the 2017 election.
Kelly v. United States,590 U.S. ___ (2020),was a United States Supreme Court case involving the 2013 Fort Lee lane closure scandal,also known as "Bridgegate". The case centered on whether Bridget Anne Kelly,the chief of staff to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who was running for reelection at the time,and Bill Baroni,the Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey,improperly used lane closures on the George Washington Bridge to create traffic jams as a means of retaliation against Mark Sokolich,the mayor of Fort Lee,New Jersey,when he refused to support Christie's reelection campaign. While lower courts had convicted Kelly and Baroni on federal fraud,wire fraud and conspiracy charges,the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the convictions in its May 2020 ruling,stating that such charges could not apply as "the scheme here did not aim to obtain money or property",and remanded their cases back to the lower courts.
