NEWARK, N.J.

A former ally to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who was the mastermind of the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane-closing scheme will not go to prison after pleading guilty and giving testimony that helped convict two former aides to the Republican governor.

Federal Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark sentenced David Wildstein to three years’ probation Wednesday along with 500 hours of community service and a ban on working in government.

He faced 21 to 27 months in prison under a plea agreement, but federal prosecutors had asked for him to only get probation after his testimony helped convict former Christie staffer Bridget Kelly and Wildstein’s former supervisor, former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive Bill Baroni.

“All three of us put our faith in a man who neither earned it nor deserved it,” Wildstein said in court Wednesday of the three charged and Christie. “I willingly drank the Kool- Aid of a man I’d known since I was 15 years old.”

Wildstein’s sentencing brings to an end to a sordid saga that has left a cloud over Christie’s administration. The scandal contributed to his approval rating falling from around 70 percent to 15 percent.

Christie, who is nearing the end of his two-term stay in the Statehouse, wasn’t charged but saw his presidential aspirations run aground by a scandal that dragged on for more than three years because of the scheme Wildstein launched to punish a Democratic mayor who wouldn’t endorse Christie’s 2013 re-election.

Wildstein apologized to Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and told the judge he regrets what he described as “a callous decision that served no purpose than to punish one mayor. It was stupid, it was wrong.”

Kelly and Baroni were sentenced to 18 and 24 months in prison, respectively, in March. Both have appealed their convictions.

Prosecutors told the judge there likely would have been no prosecutions in the case if Wildstein didn’t cooperate. Both assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Cortes and Wildstein’s attorney, Alan Zegas, asked the judge not to send him to prison.

“He walked into the U.S. attorney’s office and said, ‘I did this, this is why and this is who I did it with,’” Cortes told Wigenton.

Cortes said “there’s no excusing the conduct of David Wildstein. His efforts propelled it forward, he came up with the cover story” and his actions were a “gross abuse.” But he noted Wildstein did not delete emails like Kelly and turned over “smoking gun emails and text messages.”

He said Wildstein then told the truth during eight days of testimony and spoke with “remarkable candor” about incidents that were personally embarrassing to him.

Zegas said Wildstein provided more information than any other client he’s had in 30 years of practicing law and that he was “vilified in the press, vilified in this very courthouse almost daily,” partly because of information he provided.

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