There’ll be no roadblocks between a pair of former Chris Christie cronies and prison over their role in the Bridgegate scandal.
A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld the convictions of former Port Authority exec Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, who was a top aide to then-Gov. Christie during the political retribution scheme that snarled traffic on the George Washington Bridge in 2013.
Both will now face prison time for ordering the closure of the bridge’s upper-level toll lanes in a conspiracy to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich after he didn’t endorse Christie for re-election.
“There is no facially legitimate justification for defendants’ conduct here,” the three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia wrote in their decision.
The pair were convicted in November 2016 of misusing government resources “to pursue a purely personal vendetta,” with Kelly, 45, later sentenced to 18 months and Baroni, 46, getting two years in the slammer.
Their actions constituted federal crimes, because the Port Authority receives money from Washington.
Both were allowed to remain free pending their appeal, but were slapped with fines, restitution and community service while also being barred from public service while on supervised release.
The appeals judge did toss part of the case Tuesday involving civil rights violations the two allegedly committed — but they’ll still be headed to prison.
The US Attorney’s Office is “reviewing the opinion and is grateful for the court’s consideration of all of the issues raised in the appeal,” a spokesman told NJ.com.
Former Republican strategist and Christie-appointed Port Authority honcho David Wildstein pleaded guilty last year for orchestrating the scandal, in exchange for testifying against Kelly and his erstwhile boss Baroni.
Wildstein dodged prison under the deal, but was slapped with three years’ probation, 500 hours’ community service, $10,000 in fines and $14,314 in restitution.
Christie repeatedly denied any knowledge of the plan and was never charged in the case.