Two former top aides to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie do not have to turn over documents subpoenaed by a state legislative committee investigating a traffic scandal, a New Jersey Superior Court judge ruled on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
Attorneys for Bill Stepien, Christie's former campaign manager, and Bridget Kelly, his former deputy chief of staff, had argued that producing e-mails and other documents related to the September 2013 lane closures at the George Washington Bridge would violate their clients' constitutional protection against self-incrimination and unreasonable search and seizure, the AP reported.
Subpoenas were issued to Kelly and Stepien in January by members of the Democrat-controlled state legislature investigating the lane closings, and Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson had ordered them to explain why she should not force them to comply, according to the AP.
Denying the committee's attempt to compel them to cooperate, Jacobson noted that Stepien and Kelly both feared evidence they produced could be used by the U.S. Attorney's office in its separate investigation of the scheme and allegations of abuse of power in the Christie administration, the AP reported.
"Since a federal investigation touching on the same subject matter is currently active ... Mr. Stepien's and Ms. Kelly's fear of releasing incriminating evidence is not a 'mere imaginary possibility' nor is it 'trifling,'" Jacobson wrote, according to the AP.
The two "are justified in invoking their State privilege against self-incrimination," she added in her ruling, the AP reported.
Democratic state Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who is co-chairman of the lawmakers' investigating committee, said in a statement that the panel will now consult with attorneys to examine its options, according to the AP.
"The committee felt it was very much in the public interest to seek to compel the production of these documents, but as we've said before, there's more than one method to gather information in an investigation, and we will consider alternatives," Wisniewski said, the AP reported. "We will continue exploring every avenue to find out what happened with this threat to public safety and abuse of government power."
The closing of access lanes to the bridge, ostensibly for a traffic study that never materialized, caused extensive delays for four days in the town of Fort Lee, whose Democratic mayor had not endorsed Christie's re-election bid, according to the AP.
Christie has said he was unaware of his aides' actions and has severed ties with several of them, the AP reported. An internal review commissioned by Christie on the lane closures last month cleared the governor and his current staff, placing blame on Kelly and another former colleague.
