In a surprising decision, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeals of Bridget Anne Kelly and William E. Baroni, Jr. for their roles in the Bridgegate scandal. McCarter’s Newark managing partner and former federal prosecutor Robert Mintz said that the issue before the high court will likely be whether “this conduct amounted to criminal conduct” or if “it is limited to improper government action and perhaps bad politics.”
If the convictions are overturned, “it does send a message to prosecutors who are seeking to apply criminal statutes in circumstances where it’s not entirely clear that those statutes apply, particularly in the area of political corruption,” he said.