Editing Fort Lee, New Jersey (section)

===George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal===
{{Main|Fort Lee lane closure scandal}}
The [[Fort Lee lane closure scandal]], also known as Bridgegate, was a political scandal concerning the actions taken by the staff of [[Governor of New Jersey|New Jersey Governor]] [[Chris Christie]] and his [[Port Authority of New York and New Jersey|Port Authority]] appointees to create a traffic jam in Fort Lee when dedicated toll lanes for one of the Fort Lee entrances to the upper level on the [[George Washington Bridge]] were reduced from three to one from September 9, 2013, to September 13, 2013.<ref>Kleinfeld, N. R. [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/nyregion/a-bridge-to-scandal-behind-the-fort-lee-ruse.html "A Bridge to Scandal: Behind the Fort Lee Ruse"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', January 12, 2014. Accessed July 8, 2014.</ref><ref>Durando, Jessica; and Symons, Michael. [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/01/09/christie-bridge-scandal-what-happened/4392155/ The backstory of Christie's 'Bridgegate' scandal], ''[[USA Today]]'', January 10, 2014.</ref>  Three members of the Christie administration were convicted on federal conspiracy charges for their roles in the lane closures.<ref>[https://www.nj.com/news/2016/11/bridgegate_verdict_bill_baroni_and_bridget_kelly_g.html "Bridgegate verdict: Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly guilty on all counts"], NJ Advance Media for [[NJ.com]], November 4, 2016, updated January 16, 2019. Accessed October 2, 2019.</ref>

One of the reasons suggested for these actions was to punish Fort Lee Mayor [[Mark Sokolich]], a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]], for not supporting the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] Chris Christie in the [[New Jersey gubernatorial election, 2013|2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election]]. Another theory was that Christie or his aides sought to punish [[New Jersey Senate]] majority leader, [[Loretta Weinberg]], who represented the [[New Jersey]] district containing Fort Lee, as retribution for the Democrats' blocking of Christie's reappointment of a [[New Jersey Supreme Court]] justice. Christie withdrew his appointee consideration and delivered a speech referring to New Jersey Senate Democrats as "animals" just one day before emails were sent by Christie's aides to the Port Authority requesting the lane closures.<ref>Alman, Ashley. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/rachel-maddow-chris-christie_n_4572367.html "Rachel Maddow Presents New Chris Christie Bridge Scandal Theory"], [[The Huffington Post]], January 9, 2014. Accessed July 8, 2014.</ref>