Kelly v. United States

In 2013, Bridget Anne Kelly, Deputy Chief of Staff to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, along with Port Authority officials William Baroni and David Wildstein, orchestrated a political retaliation scheme. After Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich declined to endorse Governor Christie's reelection, the officials reduced access lanes from three to one at the George Washington Bridge toll plaza, causing four days of severe traffic gridlock. They disguised the action as a "traffic study." Kelly and Baroni were convicted of wire fraud, fraud on a federally funded program, and conspiracy. The Third Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court unanimously reversed on May 7, 2020, holding that because the scheme did not aim to obtain money or property, it did not violate the federal fraud statutes.

The Supreme Court unanimously reversed the convictions. The Court held that the federal wire fraud and federal-program fraud statutes are limited to the protection of property rights and require that obtaining money or property be the object of the fraudulent scheme. Because the defendants' scheme was an exercise of regulatory power aimed at political punishment, not property acquisition, the convictions could not stand.

Whether a public official defrauds the government of property interests by presenting a fabricated public-policy justification for an official decision that is actually motivated by political retribution, when the scheme's purpose is not to obtain money or property.

The decision significantly narrowed the scope of federal public corruption prosecutions under property fraud statutes. Critics argued it made federal prosecution of political corruption nearly impossible, while supporters contended it correctly limited federal criminal law to property fraud and left most public corruption matters to state authorities or the electorate.