NEW YORK, July 14 David Samson, a key figure in the “Bridgegate” scandal that tarnished New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s administration, was expected to plead guilty on Thursday to federal charges tied to a scheme involving United Airlines.
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The investigation into the Port Authority’s participation in that incident, known as “Bridgegate”, led prosecutors to evidence that Samson had pressured United into scheduling the flight.
United Continental Holdings Inc Chief Executive Jeff Smisek and two other senior executives resigned in September 2015 after an internal probe into whether the airline tried to curry favor with Samson by adding non-stop flights between New Jersey and SC, where Samson had a vacation home.
However, the government announced Thursday that it did charge a United consultant, Jamie Fox. He was charged with conspiracy to commit bribery.
Samson admitted discussing the flight with a consultant and senior United employees a 2011 dinner meeting in New York City, at which he let it be known that the route had made travel to his vacation home in SC much more convenient before it was canceled. “It’s a betrayal of our trust and what we have the right to expect from those in public life and it makes the job of every honest public employee just that much harder”.
He will be sentenced to between probation to 24 months in prison under the terms of his plea agreement. Fox and Samson emailed each other often and eventually hashed out a plan to get United’s hangar plan back on the Port Authority’s agenda in exchange for the reinstatement of the Newark-Columbia flight plan.
About a month later, emails show that Fox, who had discussed the SC flight with United, told Samson to put the hangar project back on the agenda. (The town’s mayor did not support Christie for re-election in 2013, and some of the governor’s staffers are alleged to have sought retribution.) Former Port Authority Deputy Executive Director William Baroni, also a New Jersey appointee, is one of several who have been charged with conspiring the politically motivated shut down.
He will be sentenced on October 20, NJ.com reported.
Fox’s attorney wasn’t immediately available for comment.
The flight, which departed Newark on a Thursday and returned on a Monday, was introduced 18 months into Samson’s three-year tenure at the Port Authority.
As a result of the investigation, United CEO Jeff Smisek resigned past year. At that time, an agreement between United and the PANYNJ to build a maintenance hangar at Newark airport was slated for presentation to the PANYNJ board.
The plea and new charges against the Christie allies – two of the state’s most powerful political insiders over more than a decade – could reverberate through the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, where Christie has taken on a prominent role.
United wanted a reduction in fees at Newark airport where the airline controlled nearly three quarters of flight slots. Without the direct flight, Samson would have had to to fly through a connecting airport instead.
Following an internal investigation carried out by United, the airline’s CEO, Jeff Smisek, as well as two high-ranking executives whose role was to interact with government representatives, resigned past year.
Prosecutors said Samson and Fox, a paid consultant and lobbyist for United who became commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation in September 2014, met with United representatives over dinner in NY.
“It undermines the already eroded confidence the public has that government is being operated for their benefit”, said New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Democrat who helped lead a committee that investigated the bridge case. He could have faced as many as 10 years in prison had the case gone to trial.
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Fox’s attorney Michael Critchley said his client would never jeopardize his reputation by engaging in illegal behavior and was part of an arrangement that he thought was appropriate.
