Cast aside by Trump, the erstwhile G.O.P. rising star slinks home with an all-time-low approval rating, a criminal summons hanging over his head, and a rival party prepared to invoke some particularly acute political torture.

After shelving his own aspirations for the Oval Office earlier this year, Chris Christie made the fateful decision to bet his political career on Donald Trump, his equally brash nemesis during the Republican primary. On some level, Christie didn't have much to lose. With the specter of his alleged involvement in the now infamous 2013 George Washington Bridge lane-closure imbroglio hanging over his head, supporting Trump wholeheartedly seemed worth a flier. It might lead to a Cabinet slot; it might land him an office outside the West Wing; at the very least, it would preclude him from trading the heights of the campaign and national politics for the less glorious lights of the Trenton statehouse. Given his political maneuvers in recent years, it has sometimes seemed as though Christie, once a rising G.O.P. star, could be distracted from his day job as governor of New Jersey.

Christie’s initial support of Trump was widely lampooned as thirsty and desperate. But, for a time, the plan appeared to be working. One week before the Republican National Convention, Trump reportedly asked Christie to join him atop the Republican Party ticket as the vice-presidential nominee. (The reported offer was rescinded, allegedly under pressure from his campaign manager at the time, Paul Manafort. Some have speculated that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, whose father was prosecuted by Christie during his career as a U.S. attorney, may have had a hand in the decision.) At the end of the summer, Trump named Christie as head of his White House transition efforts—an appointment interpreted at the time as a consolation prize, but one that might augur well for a future gig in the West Wing.

But Christie ultimately became a political liability for Trump. Days before American voters cast their ballots in the election, a New Jersey jury handed down guilty verdicts for accused Bridgegate plotters Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni. And while the New Jersey governor was not on trial, he might as well have been. For 7 weeks, a slew of individuals - the defendants and the prosecution’s star witness and self-proclaimed Bridgegate architect, David Wildstein, among them - implicated Christie in the scheme, alleging that he not only knew about the lane closures, but was complicit in an attempted cover-up.

The damning testimony raised new questions about Christie’s involvement in the scandal. As the trial was ongoing, a New Jersey judge issued a criminal summons for the governor, ruling that there was probable cause to investigate the onetime presidential candidate for official misconduct. By that point, Christie's larger aspirations appeared cooked. One week after the jury convicted Baroni and Kelly, Trump elevated Pence to lead the White House transition. Days after the shake-up, Christie conceded that he had “no reason to believe” that an offer to serve under President Trump was in the cards. He has since disappeared from consideration for a Cabinet position. Last week, Christie was reportedly grasping at the hope of becoming chairman of the Republican National Committee.