well it's been nearly a decade since Bridget and Kelly came into the spotlight at the center of the bridge Gate scandal the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closure that lasted several days Kelly's initial conviction was eventually overturned by the U.S Supreme Court and now three years later the New Jersey attorney general's office announced that her legal fees will be covered her co-defendant Bill Baroni has not had his legal fees covered but Bridget Anne joins me now to tell us what this decision means to her Bridget thanks so much for being with us tonight now you initially sought compensation for your legal fees but were denied can you explain to us why now nearly 10 years later the state has approved covering your legal fees Joanna thank you for having me it's good to see you again um basically what happened was early on I tried to get my legal my legal bills taken care of by the state and they denied it because of the indictment and because of the pending trial after I was convicted and then sentenced um twice to prison we then took the case to the United States Supreme Court as you know and we want I won unanimously Kelly versus the United States of America we won unanimously and it was overturned so my convictions were all overturned at that time um the attorneys obviously you know put in to get their uh my bills paid and they have been now so um I believe that the statute reads that because I was employed by the state of New Jersey and there was no um you know the Supreme Court Found Me Not Guilty um and overturned the conviction I believe that that was why they were probably paid and taken care of and much like anyone else in this bridge gate situation everybody else's legal bills have already been taken care of with the exception of um unfortunately my co-defendant and right correct and he was is or wasn't part of the Port Authority which I believe their statute reads differently however any of anyone that was named in Bridge State um the state spent you know paid for all their legal fees um and the state also paid for that Master report so there's a lot that um you know I know this was this seemed to be big news but there was a lot of other people whose legal bills were taken care of and my attorneys deserved the exact same amount of respect and payment and uh the statute that you're referring to uh says that any Public Employee who is wrongfully convicted or put through a trial has the right to have their legal fees paid by the state I'm just curious we are it's hard to believe almost 10 years since the bridge Gate scandal and three years since the United States Supreme Court overturned your case it's been a long time that this has kind of been sitting on your back that you've shouldered all of this how does it feel today uh to know that this is behind you well you ask anyone close to me it's really not behind me The Hangover Bridge gate remains you know I can't I haven't been able to get a my career back I haven't been able to get my reputation back it feels good to know that my attorneys were compensated for the work they did and the good work that they did because really means it's officially over um which is great but there's a lot of psychological trauma that's involved with it that remains and unfortunately I you know lost a lot of people or a lot of people walked away from me and that to this day is just unfounded and um I guess harder for me because I didn't think people were that mean but um I'm happy my attorneys are being compensated for the work they did absolutely um unfortunately the other things that are lost are not monetary and um that's going to take some time yeah for sure Bridget and Kelly we're happy to have you here at least having some good news to share thank you so much for being with us thank you