Christie supporters are accused of deliberately creating traffic jams in Fort Lee by closing lanes on the bridge approach. The judge had previously ordered federal prosecutors to make the list public by noon Friday.
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The list of names, long a source of speculation, was ordered released this week by U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark after a consortium of media companies filed a motion seeking the information.
Whether that happens remains to be seen.
But someone included on the list filed a court motion late Thursday asking to intervene anonymously to block its release, arguing it would unfairly brand them a criminal. But Wigenton said it was in the public’s interest to release the list limited to those “whom the Government has sufficient evidence to designate as having joined the conspiracy”.
Prosecutors had argued that publicly releasing the names of unindicted coconspirators before trial would damage the privacy rights of individuals who would have “no opportunity to vindicate themselves at trial”.
Thus far, prosecutors have charged three people in the case.
Bruce Rosen, a lawyer for the media companies, said on Friday he has asked prosecutors to hand over the second set of names. In their counter-motion, the media organizations lobbying for the list’s release wrote that the John Doe “can only delay the inevitable”. “To the extent any unindicted co-conspirator has taken any action relevant to the criminal case, that conduct and the actor’s identity will be learned at trial, where it can be placed in context”.
Kramer countered in court papers filed Friday that “conspiracy is a crime” and that the idea “that one who appears on a list of criminals is not branded a criminal … is ludicrous”.
New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman had opposed the release, saying in court filings that the Justice Department doesn’t normally publicize the names of uncharged co-conspirators.
The U.S. attorney’s office, which brought the indictment against two former aides to Gov. Chris Christie, had opposed the release of the names over individual privacy concerns.
Prosecutors in January provided the list of unindicted coconspirators to the defendants, Bridget Anne Kelly, Gov. Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, a former top Christie appointee at the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey.
Two members of Christie’s inner circle, Bill Baroni , the former deputy director at the Port Authority and a onetime New Jersey state senator, and Bridget Anne Kelly , Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, are scheduled to go on trial in September for allegedly orchestrating nearly a week of rush hour lane closings on the George Washington Bridge, a major commuter route between New Jersey and New York City. A third defendant, former Port Authority of NY and New Jersey executive David Wildstein, pleaded guilty.
Lawyers for Kelly and Baroni declined to comment on the most recent legal wrangling over the release of the names.
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The Thursday motion came on the same day the media organizations asked federal prosecutors to release a separate list that reportedly shows the names of people who may have known about the conspiracy but weren’t criminally charged. In a February 16 court filing, prosecutors referred to people who “may have had knowledge of the conspiracy” but didn’t join as the unindicted co-conspirators did.
