Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Supreme Court throws out two Bridgegate convictions
The Hill ^ | 05 07 2020 | Harper Neidig

Posted on 05/07/2020 7:36:16 AM PDT by yesthatjallen

The Supreme Court on Thursday threw out the convictions of two government officials implicated in the 2013 Bridgegate scandal, in which then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) allies schemed to create a traffic jam to retaliate against one of his rivals.

The justices said in their unanimous decision that while the scheme involved deception and corruption, it did not violate federal law.

"The question presented is whether the defendants committed property fraud," Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the court's opinion. "The evidence the jury heard no doubt shows wrongdoing — deception, corruption, abuse of power. But the federal fraud statutes at issue do not criminalize all such conduct. Under settled precedent, the officials could violate those laws only if an object of their dishonesty was to obtain the Port Authority’s money or property."

The case centered around convictions of Bridget Anne Kelly, a former aide to Christie, and Bill Baroni, a former Port Authority official, for their role in a scheme to close lanes on the George Washington Bridge to create traffic problems for the mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., who had refused to endorse Christie.

SNIP

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: judiciary; scotus; supremecourt; supremes
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last

1 posted on 05/07/2020 7:36:16 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: yesthatjallen
Some of us predicted this was going to happen. I'm not even surprised it was a unanimous verdict in the Supreme Court.

I wouldn't even bother sitting on a Federal jury of any kind, since at least 95% of the things listed in the Federal criminal code shouldn't even be Federal crimes.

2 posted on 05/07/2020 7:39:57 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yesthatjallen
The two were convicted of fraud for lying about a fake traffic study in order to justify the lane closures.

P.S. -- The Supreme Court's reasoning here is ultimately going to end up getting a whole other set of Federal court cases tossed: the ones against those parents who submitted phony college applications on behalf of their children.

3 posted on 05/07/2020 7:41:56 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yesthatjallen

You don’t see many 9-0 SCOTUS votes.


4 posted on 05/07/2020 7:44:48 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Rats Just Can't Get Over The Fact That They Lost A Rigged Election!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yesthatjallen

It was much ado about nothing.
The New York newspapers went wild over it, both the Post and the Daily News.


5 posted on 05/07/2020 7:45:13 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child
In those cases the parents in question get something of value...monetary value.In Bridgegate that wasn't the case according to the SCOTUS ruling.
6 posted on 05/07/2020 7:46:51 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Rats Just Can't Get Over The Fact That They Lost A Rigged Election!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Gay State Conservative
In those cases the parents got something of "monetary value" that they PAID for. If I lie on an application and get accepted to USC, and then go there and pay the full cost of $50,000+ per year (which is what happened in those cases), then nobody has been defrauded of anything.

It's also important to note that a fraud charge doesn't hold up to any scrutiny unless there's an alleged "victim" who has been deprived of something that rightfully belongs to him or her. There were no victims in any of these cases.

7 posted on 05/07/2020 7:50:22 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Gay State Conservative
You don’t see many 9-0 SCOTUS votes.

Actually, they are more common than you'd think. It's just that it usually happens in cases that don't get much public attention.

8 posted on 05/07/2020 7:53:04 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child
don't know if you're a lawyer but I'm certainly not.Unless I'm very much mistaken a degree from USC is worth a whole lot more,monetarily and otherwise,that is a degree from North Deadhorse County Community College.

In Bridgegate the defendants may,or may not,have benefited politically but,according to the court,didn't benefit monetarily.

Assuming that you,like me,are not a lawyer (perhaps an unsafe assumption on my part),I think we should have a lawyer weigh in on this particular issue.

9 posted on 05/07/2020 7:59:42 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Rats Just Can't Get Over The Fact That They Lost A Rigged Election!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SmokingJoe
The New York newspapers went wild over it, both the Post and the Daily News.

Bridgegate was all over the news. Yet NursingHomeGate is barely news.

10 posted on 05/07/2020 8:03:45 AM PDT by proud2beconservativeinNJ ("In God We Trust")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Gay State Conservative

“You don’t see many 9-0 SCOTUS votes.”

Today, we saw two 9-0 opinions. In the other case, the SCOTUS unanimously smacked down two Clinton judges and an Obama judge on the 9th Circuit for overreaching and gross abuse of direction in overturning the felony conviction of an “immigration consultant,” under 8 U. S. C. §1324(a)(1)(A)(iv) and (B)(i), for encouraging and inducing “an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law.”

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19-67_n6io.pdf


11 posted on 05/07/2020 8:04:11 AM PDT by Labyrinthos
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Gay State Conservative

The SC issues more unanimous rulings than any other kind. More than a third of the time.


12 posted on 05/07/2020 8:08:26 AM PDT by jjotto (“Blessed are You LORD, who crushes enemies and subdues the wicked.”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Gay State Conservative
Unless I'm very much mistaken a degree from USC is worth a whole lot more,monetarily and otherwise,that is a degree from North Deadhorse County Community College.

I'm not a lawyer but I have often been involved in legal proceedings professionally on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants -- so I know a bit more about the law than your average layperson.

What a degree from USC is worth after you graduate has no bearing on a fraud claim. The only thing in question is what the admission to USC is worth to USC. I would assume it's worth $50,000/year, since that's what they charged for it.

If someone steals my $40,000 car and uses it to hold up a bank and get $1 million in the process, my "loss" is $40,000 ... not $40,000 plus the $1 million the thief got after he stole it.

13 posted on 05/07/2020 8:16:04 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Gay State Conservative
Lawsuits will happen. USC has a 16% acceptance rate. Lori and crew lied on their applications. Many other 'honest' applicants were deemed unworthy. Parents accused of wrongdoing have already started looking into the USC process.
14 posted on 05/07/2020 8:17:26 AM PDT by Theoria (I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

How about the kid who didn’t get in be a use his slot was taken by a kid who lied on his application?

Grant you it would likely be impossible to ID a specific vic, but there are losers or there wouldn’t be an incentive to lie on an application. Everybody who wants to can’t get in.


15 posted on 05/07/2020 8:17:37 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: mewzilla
How about the kid who didn’t get in be a use his slot was taken by a kid who lied on his application?

That person has a legitimate interest in an honest application process, but he wasn't defrauded of anything because he had no ownership of that slot in the first place.

The only potential "victim" in this case would be USC, but they could never hold up under any scrutiny for two simple reasons:

1. As I demonstrated, you can't be a fraud victim if the person who allegedly defrauded you paid the full cost of what you were selling.

2. If having an unqualified applicant admitted to USC amounts to "fraud," then USC itself should be prosecuted for fraud every time it admits a student who is an unqualified woman, minority, "disadvantaged" person, etc.

16 posted on 05/07/2020 8:24:39 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Gay State Conservative; Alberta's Child

Although I am not a criminal lawyer, I am a lawyer and so I guess that makes my opinion slightly more than worthless. The SCOTUS unanimously held (which means the law should have been obvious to the judges on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals and the district court judge) that wire fraud requires an intent to acquire money or property by by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises. In other words, the government must prove that the goal of the fraudulent scheme is to acquire money or property (as opposed to an incidental result of the scheme).

In the college admission fraud scam, the goal of the fraud was to obtain admission to a college that the applicant would not have otherwise obtained. The money or property acquired by fraud is the value of the college education, including the cost of instruction, administrative support, maintenance, infrastructure, etc.


17 posted on 05/07/2020 8:24:52 AM PDT by Labyrinthos
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Labyrinthos
OK,cool. But are you suggesting that these parents can still be prosecuted despite today's ruling? Although everything I know about the law was learned watching “Rumpole Of The Bailey”,when you say “the money or property acquired by fraud is the value of the college education...” that suggests to me that the courts would recognize that degrees granted by some schools are more valuable,monetarily,that those granted by others.
18 posted on 05/07/2020 8:33:13 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Rats Just Can't Get Over The Fact That They Lost A Rigged Election!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Labyrinthos
The money or property acquired by fraud is the value of the college education, including the cost of instruction, administrative support, maintenance, infrastructure, etc.

No offense, but are you really a lawyer? How can the parents who submitted false applications be guilty of fraud if they PAID for all these things after their children were admitted?

Suppose my name is Albert S. Child and I earn an annual salary of $50,000. I go to a Lamborghini dealership to buy a car, and I tell the sales representative that my annual income is $25 million. I fill out a purchase contract as John Q. Smith, pay $250,000 cash for a car, and drive it off the lot. Did I defraud the car dealership?

In the case of a college admissions process, there is even LESS of a fraud case to be made because the applicant is almost always paying a fee just to file the application.

19 posted on 05/07/2020 8:33:18 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: yesthatjallen

The only person who should have been charged was Chris Christie. He was governor and he’s a vindictive, mean SOB. There’s no way he didn’t know about this. None.


20 posted on 05/07/2020 8:34:09 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson