The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear a case on the “Bridgegate” scandal.
Bridget Kelly, a former aide to ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), was sentenced to 13 months in prison earlier this year for her role in the scandal, in which prosecutors allege officials sought to create traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge in 2013 as an act of political retribution.
Kelly is now seeking for her 13-month prison sentence to be thrown out, which the Supreme Court will consider during its upcoming term.{mosads}
Kelly has presented to the high court the question of whether a public official “defrauds” the government of its property “by advancing a ‘public policy reason’ for an official decision that is not her subjective ‘real reason’ for making the decision.”
Prosecutors alleged that the lane closures on the bridge were revenge for the mayor of the nearby town of Fort Lee refusing to support Christie’s reelection bid.
Kelly has maintained that she believed the lane closures were for a traffic study, but prosecutors claim that she knew of the political plot.
“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Kelly wrote in an email to one Port Authority executive just weeks ahead of the lane closures.
The former state aide has maintained the Christie was aware of the scandal.
“I would like Gov. Christie to acknowledge … that he’s, by doing what he has done, which is not telling the truth, has destroyed my life,” Kelly said in an interview with WCBS earlier this year.
Christie, a former Trump campaign adviser, has denied any knowledge of the scandal. He fired Kelly in January 2014 after the allegations surrounding the lane closures first emerged.
A federal appeals court already threw out two of the nine charges against Kelly and another former official, lowering her prison sentence from 18 months to 13 months.
Bill Baroni, an ex-top Port Authority official, was also charged and convicted in the scandal. His sentence was reduced to 18 months earlier this year.