‘BridgeGhazi Bridget’ Takes The Fifth, Stonewalls Documents
This latest development in the BridgeGhazi scandal slipped out Monday night when (almost) nobody was looking:
Governor Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, will not turn over documents in response to a legislative subpoena, her lawyer said Monday, making her the second person to invoke constitutional protections against self-incrimination.
The information demanded by a legislative committee about the George Washington Bridge lane closures “directly overlaps with a parallel federal grand jury investigation,” a letter from attorney Michael Critchley, Sr. to the committee’s special counsel states. The letter, obtained by The Record, also cites her right to privacy.
“Moreover, providing the Committee with unfettered access to, among other things, Ms. Kelly’s personal diaries, calendars and all of her electronic devices amounts to an inappropriate and unlimited invasion of Ms. Kelly’s personal privacy and would also potentially reveal highly personal confidential communications completely unrelated to the reassignment of access lanes to the George Washignton Bridge,” Critchley wrote.
Already released records show that Kelly sent an e-mail to a Port Authority executive weeks before the lane closures: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” it said. Christie fired Kelly last month after the e-mail surfaced. He also cut ties with his former campaign manager, Bill Stepien, whose attorney last week also declined to produce the documents requested by a subpoena.
