Trump floats new Bridgegate probe
Hits back after Christie criticizes him in TV interview
By: Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... After a morning news show appearance during which former Governor Chris Christie took aim at the Trump administration on multiple topics, the president implied via social media that he would support reopening the investigation into Bridgegate from more than a decade ago.
.....
Christie spoke about the FBI and at former Trump adviser John Bolton's house last week [08/21/2025] and said he thinks it's "kind of funny to hear the president talk the way he does about Bolton and classified information, yet when he had the classified information, the same rules didn't apply."
..... He went on to say that "Donald Trump sees himself as the person who gets to decide everything, and he doesn't care about any separation," and that "he absolutely rejects the idea that their should be separation between criminal investigations and the politically elected leader of the United States."
..... Christie also noted that none of Trump's behavior should come as a surprise to the American people, because the president said during the 2024 campaign "that he was going to have a Justice Department that acted as his personal legal representation, and that is what they're doing."
..... President Donald Trump posted on social media that he had watched Christie' Sunday [08/24/2025] show appearance and brought up Bridgegate.
..... "Do you remember the way he lied about the dangerous and deadly closure of the George Washington Bridge in order to stay our of prison, at the same time sacrificing people whop worked for him, including a young mother, who spent years trying to fight off the vicious charges against hr," Trump said.
..... There is no evidence of any deaths rated to the 2013 incident, and the young mother in question, Bridget Anne Kelly, went ton to run for Bergen county clerk after years of court battles and appeals.
..... Trump added that Christie "refused to take responsibility for these criminal acts" and that "For the sake of justice, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again?" before noting in all capital letters that "no one is above the law."
..... Speaking with reporters Monday [08/25/2025] in the Oval Office, Trump continued to speculate about revising Bridgegate.
..... "Look, Chris is a slob - everybody knows it," the president said, adding that he believed Christie "got away with murder" regarding Bridgegate.
..... Trump said he would leave it to Justice Department officials to pursue a new investigation.
..... The scandal, which became known as Bridgegate, started with some "traffic problems" in Fort Lee in September 2013.
..... During Christie's recalcitrant bid that year, members of his inner circle concocted a scheme to penalize Fort Lee's longtime mayor Mark Sokolich, for supporting Barbara Buono, the Democrat on the ballot in that year's gubernatorial race, rather than the incumbent Christie.
.....
The story, originally reported by NorthJersey.com and The Record, goes that after Sokolich refused to support Christie's reelection campaign, a group of Christie insiders took it upon themselves to punish Sokolich - and North Jersey commuters - by shutting down two access lanes to the bridge.
..... The cover story for the closure was that the Port Authority was conducting a "traffic study." The lanes were closed on September 9, 2012, the first day of school in Fort Lee, and caused massive tie-ups in the borough, Sokolich got no reply when he reached out to Christie's top executive at the Port Authority.
..... The lanes were reopened on September 13,2013, after Pat Foye, the executive direction of the Port authority, appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, ordered it.
.....
Years of state and federal investigation followed. charges were filed, and trials, verdicts, prison terms and appeals ensured. By 2020, all of the major players were cleared and life moved on.
..... christen was never found to have knowledge of the pilot, and although some believe the scandal derailed his presidential ambitions in 2016, he made another go of it in the Republican campaign for the 2024 nomination, which ultimately didn't last long.
..... In the immediate aftermath, of the scandal, he won a second term by a wide margin and then started cleaning house. Both of the men involved at the Port authority were gone by the end of the year, and the deputy chief of staff involved was fired just days into 2014.
..... but what most remember from Christie at the time is the marathon news conference he held in January 2014 in which he repeatedly apologized to the public. After leaving office, he worked for the first Trump administration and then as a cable news pundit.