Bridget Kelly, a former aide to ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, said on Thursday that her former boss made her into “a scapegoat” for the 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal, CBS News reports.
Kelly was sentenced on Wednesday to 13 months in prison for her role in the scandal, in which the governor’s office allegedly worked to create traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge as political retaliation against the mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey for not supporting Christie’s re-election campaign.
“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Kelly wrote in an email to Port Authority executives a few weeks before lanes were closed on the bridge.
"I would like Gov. Christie to acknowledge … that he's – by doing what he has done, which is not telling the truth, has destroyed my life," Kelly told WCBS in New York, after the sentencing. She described Christie as “a micromanager,” and said “there wasn’t much in that office that he didn’t know about,” and that he was “beyond involved” in day-to-day activities.
"The truth will be heard. And for the former governor, that truth will be unescapable," she said at a press conference.
Christie has denied that he was involved in the scandal.
"He's lying," Kelly said. "I was the lowest-hanging fruit and the easiest to dispose of. … I accept responsibility for my poor choice of words … but it doesn't feel good to be going to jail for something I didn't do at all."
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