The release on Friday of roughly 2,000 pages of documents by New Jersey state legislators, which included emails and texts among top officials in the Christie administration and officials at the Port Authority, the bridge’s operator, came one day after Mr. Christie apologized for, he said, unwittingly misleading the public. The governor, a Republican, called the entire episode “embarrassing and humiliating.” 
 
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 Mr. Christie spent the day on Thursday trying to repair the damage the unfolding scandal has done to his image and his possible aspirations to run for president in 2016. But even as questions continued to swirl on Friday, he was still planning to travel to Florida next week to raise money for Republican candidates. 
 
 He did not comment on the newly released documents. 
 
 The documents suggest that the decision to close the lanes had been met with confusion by both local officials and workers ordered to close them. 
 
 Inspector Darcy Licorish of the Port Authority Police Department, who was assigned to place the orange cones directing local traffic away from three toll lanes, wrote that superiors could not answer how long the new traffic pattern was intended to last or whether Fort Lee officials had been informed of the change. 
 
 For months, Mr. Christie steadfastly denied that his administration had any role in the decision to close the traffic lanes. At the same time, lawmakers held hearings and subpoenaed witnesses and documents to determine exactly what happened. 
 
 No testimony or documents have shown that the governor called for shutting down the lanes or was involved in any discussions to conceal the political motive behind the closings, but the documents made clear that the discussions about the cover-up included some top aides in his office and campaign. 
 
 On Wednesday, some of those communications were made public, revealing that one of Mr. Christie’s top aides had apparently played an integral role in ordering the lanes closed and that the motivation was to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, who refused to endorse Mr. Christie’s re-election effort. 
 
 On Aug. 13, that aide, Bridget Anne Kelly, one of the governor’s deputy chiefs of staff, sent an email to David Wildstein, a Christie ally at the Port Authority, saying, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” 
 
 “Got it,” Mr. Wildstein replied. 
 
 One month later, on Sept. 9, several local lanes onto the bridge, the world’s busiest, were suddenly closed, snarling traffic in Fort Lee and causing headaches for thousands of commuters. The lanes remained closed for days. 
 
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 As the matter came under increasing scrutiny, Mr. Wildstein and a Christie appointee at the authority, Bill Baroni, resigned under a cloud of suspicion. Ms. Kelly was fired this week. 
 
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 The new documents offer a look at the internal strife the lane closings set off within the Port Authority, ultimately pitting the executive director, Patrick J. Foye, who was appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, against officials from New Jersey appointed by Mr. Christie. At one point, as Mr. Foye continued to inquire about the matter, Mr. Wildstein called him a “piece of crap” in an email to Michael Drewniak, Mr. Christie’s chief spokesman. 
 
 Mr. Foye had pressed the matter internally, vowing in an email dated Sept. 13 to investigate. He wrote that he was “appalled” by the “hasty and ill-advised” decision that had been carried out without informing local officials, saying it had caused economic harm, endangered residents of Fort Lee and “violates federal law and the laws” of New York and New Jersey. 
 
 He seemed dismissive of the idea that the lanes were closed for a traffic study. 
 
 In November, as a number of media outlets continued to raise questions, Mr. Drewniak exchanged a series of profanity-laced emails with Mr. Wildstein, cursing reporters and disparaging Mr. Foye, as well. 
 
 The documents also indicate that Mr. Christie’s appointees at the Port Authority had discussed the matter with Mr. Christie’s communications director, Maria Comella, as early as Oct. 2, after the second of two articles appeared in The Wall Street Journal. “Comella didn’t think much of the story. Said nobody paying attention,” Mr. Baroni texted Mr. Wildstein. 
 
 The emails also suggest the intimate involvement of David Samson, Mr. Christie’s handpicked chairman of the Port Authority, showing that he was aware of the lane closings before they ended on Sept. 13. 
 
 One week after Mr. Foye sent him an angry email about the lane closings, Mr. Samson struck back in an email to New York appointees at the authority. He accused Mr. Foye of leaking a memo critical of the lane closings to The Journal. When the New Yorkers said they did not believe Mr. Foye had done so, Mr. Samson insisted, finally warning, “he’s playing in traffic, made a big mistake.” 
 
 The tension between officials from New York and New Jersey is an underlying theme of many of the documents, with Christie loyalists repeatedly trying to keep the matter from breaking into public view. 
 
 When Mr. Foye first emailed Mr. Baroni about the closings, Mr. Baroni told him that they had to talk about it in person rather than by email, and that there could be “no public discourse.” 
 
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 On Sept. 13, the day the lanes were finally reopened, a staff member responsible for fielding reporters’ calls wrote to Mr. Baroni and Mr. Foye, saying he had had several inquiries from local newspapers. 
 
 Mr. Baroni said he would seek guidance, and several hours later wrote back with a statement saying that the Port Authority had been conducting a traffic study. 
 
 On Oct. 9, a Port Authority staff member emailed Mr. Wildstein with a synopsis of recent news coverage that questioned whether the lane closings had been a form of political retribution. “Has any thought been given to writing an op-ed or providing a statement about the G.W.B. study?” the staff member asked Mr. Wildstein. “Or is the plan just to hunker down and grit our way through it?” 
 
 Mr. Wildstein’s reply was concise: “Yes and yes.” ||||| Gov. Chris Christie’s top Port Authority appointee covered up the crippling, retaliatory lane closures at the George Washington Bridge by demanding the agency hide the truth from the public, damning e-mails revealed Friday. 
 
 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s top Port Authority appointee covered up the crippling, retaliatory lane closures at the George Washington Bridge by demanding the agency hide the truth from the public, damning e-mails revealed Friday. 
 
 “I am on my way to office to discuss. There can be no public discourse,” Bill Baroni, then the PA’s deputy executive director, wrote to agency head Patrick Foye on Sept. 13, following a week of traffic chaos in Fort Lee. 
 
 The closures were disguised as a traffic study to see what would happen if two of the three lanes from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge were cut off during the morning rush. 
 
 The results were disastrous — and Foye demanded that the lanes be reopened in an e-mail to Baroni and other underlings. 
 
 Foye complained the reckless move put lives at risk and violated federal laws and the laws of New Jersey and New York. 
 
 “I am appalled at the lack of process, failure to inform our customers and Fort Lee and most of all the dangers created to the public interest,” he wrote. “I pray that no life has been lost or trip of a hospital-bound or hospice-bound patient delayed. 
 
 “To be clear,” he added, “I will get to the bottom of this abusive decision which violates everything this agency stands for.” 
 
 Foye then asked his top spokeswoman in an e-mail, “How do we get the word out?” 
 
 Baroni, who was cc’d, shot back, “Pat, we need to discuss prior to any communications.” 
 
 “Bill, we are going to fix this fiasco,” Foye wrote, to which Baroni responded about keeping the public in the dark. 
 
 The e-mails were the start of an elaborate coverup by the agency bosses in the wake of the traffic mess orchestrated by top Christie aide Bridget Kelly — who was fired on Thursday — and David Wildstein, Christie’s PA appointee, who resigned last month. 
 
 The e-mails released by the state Assembly on Friday showed the chaos caused by the plot and the lengths taken to hush it up. 
 
 Port Authority cops at the bridge only learned of the Monday closures a day ahead of time. PA Police Capt. Darcy Licorish begged for more information. 
 
 “No answers could be supplied,” Licorish wrote after meeting with the bridge manager, Robert Durando. 
 
 Wildstein viewed the mayhem in person, arriving at the GWB at 7 a.m. on Sept. 9. “Will be at the bridge early Monday to view new lane test,” Wildstein wrote to Durando. Durando sent an e-mail later that day that read: “Fort Lee is not happy.” 
 
 The fallout triggered a border war between the Christie-appointed PA chairman, David Samson, and the Gov. Cuomo-appointed Foye. 
 
 In a Sept. 16 e-mail to Scott Rechler, vice chairman of the Port Authority Board of Commissioners, Samson flat-out accused Foye of leaking an internal memo on the matter to a Wall Street Journal reporter. 
 
 “I am told the ED [executive director Foye] leaked to the WSJ his story about Fort Lee issues — very unfortunate for NY/NJ relations,” Samson wrote to Rechler, complaining the agency honcho was “playing in traffic, made a big mistake.” 
 
 A month later, on Oct. 9, a top adviser to Samson wrote to Wildstein, “Has any thought been given to writing an op-ed or providing a statement about the GWB study? Or is the plan just to hunker down and grit our way through it?” 
 
 “Yes and yes,” Wildstein answered. 
 
 Baroni’s “no public discourse” e-mail was copied to Lisa MacSpadden, the PA’s Cuomo-appointed public relations head, who quietly departed from the agency without explanation Jan. 2. 
 
 Christie is not implicated in the e-mails, but New Jersey Deputy Assembly Speaker John Wisniewski said a document submitted by Wildstein referenced a meeting between the governor and Samson a week before Kelly ordered the traffic mess. 
 
 “By submitting these documents, Mr. Wildstein is telling us they are related to the lane closures in some way. The question that demands answering is — how?” Wisniewski, a Democrat, said. 
 
 Christie did not make any statements on Friday about the documents, which provide the first extensive chronology of the Fort Lee traffic debacle. 
 
 In a Sept. 6 e-mail, Daniel Jacobs, the PA general manager of transportation, asked Gerard Quelch, in charge of planning and operations, why the test was planned: “What is driving this?” 
 
 Quelch responded: “That is my question as well. A single toll operation invites potential disaster . . . It seems like we are punishing all for the sake of a few.” 
 
 On the first day of the closings, Fort Lee officials reported hours-long backups. But Wildstein — a high-school classmate of Christie — wanted the toll-lane mayhem to go on. 
 
 Durando wrote: “Just got off the phone with DW. He’d like to continue the test of tl [toll lane] 24 through tomorrow.” 
 
 On the third day, Durando warned officials of the costs of the “test.” 
 
 “This operation has the potential to be very expensive and labor intensive,” he wrote. 
 
 On the fourth day, the PA put out the first results of the traffic study, calling it “an EARLY assessment” and noting the closings were causing traffic misery in Fort Lee 
 
 A day later — after Baroni huddled with Foye and other agency officials — the PA issued a statement: 
 
 “The Port Authority has conducted a week of study at the George Washington Bridge of traffic safety patterns. We will now review those results and determine the best traffic patterns at the GWB. We will continue to work with our local law-enforcement partners.” 
 
 Prominent highway planner Rachel Weinberger told The Post this was nothing like a typical traffic study — where a simulation plan would be presented to the local community with plenty of advance notice. 
 
 “You would do it in the middle of the night, put rubber counters down and then count how many vehicles are coming,” she said. 
 
 “It’s unclear what advantage they would have gained from bottling the bridge up for four days.” ||||| Vulgarity-laced emails show attempts to silence GWB story 
 
 STAFF WRITERS 
 
 The Record 
 
 Full Coverage: Chris Christie and the GWB lane closure controversy 
 
 STAFF AND WIRE PHOTOS Governor Christie, David Wildstein and Bridget Anne Kelly. 
 
 Some of Governor Christie’s closest loyalists made an effort to keep information about the George Washington Bridge lane closures out of public view for months, as questions swirled about what now appears to have been a politically motivated vendetta, thousands of documents released Friday show. 
 
 The documents provide a sweeping timeline of the internal deliberations taking place among at least 10 of Christie’s trusted aides. They stretch from the weeks before the September lane closings up to and beyond the November election and are punctuated with vulgarities aimed at the media and signs of tension between New York and New Jersey officials who share control of the agency that operates the bridge. 
 
 View and download: NJ Assembly releases GWB scandal documents 
 
 The documents also show that Port Authority Chairman David Samson, Christie’s top appointee at the agency, blamed a New York official — the one who reopened the lanes and said the closings were possibly illegal — for a leak to the media. 
 
 Christie’s spokesman in Trenton, meanwhile, was informed of a statement issued by the Port Authority during the week of the lane closings asserting they were part of a study of traffic-safety patterns — a contention that has since been undermined. The same spokesman, Michael Drewniak, engaged in expletive-laced name-calling of reporters who were looking into the closures, and the agency repeatedly ignored outside inquiries at the behest of New Jersey officials, the emails show. 
 
 
 
 The unfolding scandal has already felled four officials responsible for the lane diversions that began when a high-ranking Christie staffer sent an explosive email: 
 
 “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” 
 
 Nothing in the approximately 2,000 documents released on Friday by the Assembly committee investigating the matter suggest that Christie knew of the lane-closure scheme beforehand. And they shed little new light on whether administration officials targeted the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee because he did not endorse Christie. 
 
 But they do show that professionals within the agency predicted a “potential disaster” for motorists. 
 
 And they illustrate that the advice of Samson and Drewniak was often sought as Christie’s loyalists inside and outside the agency fended off inquiries from legislators and media and held firm to their initial assertion that there was a traffic study. The controversy could threaten Christie’s 2016 presidential ambitions. 
 
 Some of the most telling emails involve Samson, a former state attorney general, who appeared to be more concerned about who leaked information to the media, than the traffic tie-ups and hampered public-safety efforts in Fort Lee. 
 
 After the publication of an article about the tie-ups in The Wall Street Journal — about seven weeks before the gubernatorial election — Samson wrote to Scott Rechler, the agency’s vice chairman and a New York appointee. 
 
 The subject of the email was Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye, also a New York appointee. 
 
 “I am told the ED leaked to the WSJ his story about Fort Lee issues — very unfortunate for NY/NJ relations,” Samson wrote. 
 
 Later, Samson wrote that Foye is “stirring up trouble.” 
 
 “This is yet another example of a story, we’ve seen it before, where he distances himself from an issue in the press and rides in on a white horse to save the day … in this case, he’s playing in traffic, made a big mistake.” 
 
 About two weeks later, David Wildstein, a Christie appointee to the agency who resigned last month, wrote to Christie’s campaign manager. 
 
 “We need to address leaks from Foye and his messing with us 5 weeks before election,” adding that he would speak with Drewniak and Bridget Anne Kelly, who sent the explosive email that set the lane closures in motion. 
 
 Other exchanges between Drewniak and Wildstein came as reporters were seeking more answers about the closures. 
 
 In one, Drewniak referred to a reporter seeking comment on the story as a “mutt,” preceding it with profanity for emphasis. 
 
 In response to an editorial writer from The Star-Ledger asking for reaction to the legislative probe, Drewniak wrote “[Expletive] him and the S-L.” 
 
 And in an early October exchange, Wildstein emailed a newspaper article to the personal email accounts of Drewniak, Christie campaign manager Bill Stepien and now-fired deputy chief of staff Kelly. 
 
 The documents released Friday also referred to other inner-circle Christie officials. In an October email Wildstein sent to Kelly, he said resigned Port Authority executive Bill Baroni “spoke with McKenna over [the] weekend.” Charles McKenna is Christie’s chief counsel. 
 
 An email, sent on the last day of the lane closures to Kelly from Christie aide Christina Genovese Renna, relayed a message another aide took from Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich. 
 
 The email, also forwarded to Wildstein, said Sokolich called the governor’s office to complain, saying “he has no idea why Port Authority decided to do this.” 
 
 “He simply can’t understand why that would be the case however, because he has always been so supportive of the governor,” the email said. “Sokolich explained that the Council wants to organize a press conference with picketers at the foot of the bridge.” 
 
 “The Mayor feels he is about to lose control of the situation and that he looks like a [expletive] idiot,’Ÿ” the email said. 
 
 Wildstein responded: “call me when you have a moment.” 
 
 Although the documents show that agency engineers were keeping track of traffic flow during the closures, two of the Port Authority professionals testified under oath last month that the study seemed odd. 
 
 On Sept. 6, three days before the lane closures began, the authority’s supervisor of planning and operations told other officials that he was “very confused” about the need to close two of the three lanes in Fort Lee. 
 
 “A single toll lane operation invites potential disaster,” the official, Gerard Quelch, wrote in an email. “Even with a three lane operation, motorists experience 5-10 min each morning. It seems like we are punishing all for the sake of a few.” 
 
 Another email, sent on the day the closures started, came to the Port Authority from Fort Lee Borough Administrator Peggy Thomas. It outlined hampered public-safety efforts, including delayed responses to a missing-person call and a cardiac arrest. 
 
 By the end of that day, Robert Durando, the manager of the bridge, sent a message to Cedrick Fulton, the agency’s director of tunnels, bridges and terminals, asking if he’d talked to Wildstein about extending what they called a “TL 24 Test” for another day. 
 
 “We spoke. The test will continue. Good luck,” Fulton replied. 
 
 Staff Writer Michael Phillis contributed to this article. Email: boburg@northjersey.com, reitmeyer@northjersey.com and linhorst@northjersey.com 
 
 The Record's previous coverage 
 
 Sept. 13, 2013 - Road Warrior: Closed tollbooths a commuting disaster 
 
 Sept. 14, 2013 - Road Warrior: Port Authority reveals traffic 'study' 
 
 Oct. 2, 2013 - Port Authority chief's email demands answers to closing of lanes leading to George Washington Bridge 
 
 Nov. 13, 2013 - Port Authority won't address massive September traffic tie-ups on George Washington Bridge 
 
 Nov. 25, 2013 - Port Authority breaks silence on George Washington Bridge delays 
 
 Dec. 2, 2013 - Christie says it's Democrats, not he, playing politics with GWB traffic flap 
 
 Dec. 11, 2013 - Port Authority chairman silent on September lane closures on George Washington Bridge 
 
 Dec. 13, 2013 - Christie's top Port Authority appointee Baroni resigns amid escalating probe into GWB lane closures 
 
 Dec. 19, 2013 - Christie: GWB lane closings 'not that big a deal' 
 
 Dec. 20, 2013 - Fort Lee mayor disputes Christie's claim Port Authority not called over GWB traffic 
 
 Dec. 24, 2013 - Port Authority official was told of traffic woes at George Washington Bridge 
 
 Dec. 28, 2013 - Emails show Port Authority officials were warned of hardships caused by GWB lane closures 
 
 Jan. 1, 2014 - Kelly: Assemblyman says order for GWB traffic tie-up came from outside Port Authority 
 
 Jan. 8, 2014 - Christie stuck in a jam over GWB lane closings 
 
 Jan. 8, 2014 - EMS responses delayed by GWB lane closures in what Fort Lee mayor calls 'absolute power corruption' 
 
 Jan. 8, 2014 - Christie administration may have violated public records law 
 
 Jan. 9, 2014 - Jan. 9, 2014 - Six Bergen County residents file class-action lawsuits over GWB scandal 
 
 Jan. 9, 2014 - Doblin: Christie’s new diet includes a lot of crow 
 
 Jan. 10, 2014 - Christie, Fort Lee mayor describe meeting as 'very productive' 
 
 Jan. 10, 2014 - Assembly panel charges contempt as David Wildstein refuses to testify on GWB scandal 
 
 Jan. 10, 2014 - Kelly: Image of former Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly doesn't fit resume 
 
 Jan. 10, 2014 - A trail of apologies: Christie repentant, lays blame on key aide ||||| Port Authority officials appointed by Gov. Chris Christie knew that the closures they engineered on lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge in September were causing serious delays for emergency responders but still ordered the closures to continue, documents released Friday show. 
 
 The documents, more than a thousand pages of emails and texts between Port Authority officials and staff, curious reporters and Christie staffers, did not clarify what the New Jersey governor knew about the lane closures, which he said were engineered by his staff without his knowledge, apparently as retribution to the Fort Lee mayor, who had failed to endorse his reelection campaign. But they did suggest that Port Authority officials blatantly ignored protests from staffers and constituents. 
 
 An email from a Port Authority staffer to David Wildstein and Bill Baroni, Christie’s Port Authority appointees, on the evening of Monday, Sept. 9 -- the first day of the closures -- indicated that EMS workers had trouble responding that day to an incident involving a missing child (later found) and a cardiac arrest. 
 
 Still, Wildstein ordered that the blockages continue on Tuesday, according to emails between Cedrick Fulton, the Port Authority’s director of tunnels, bridges and terminals, and Robert Durando, manager of the George Washington Bridge. Ultimately the roads were closed for four days. 
 
 Port Authority staffers knew the closures would cause trouble even before they started. They were told a study was being done because Fort Lee had three dedicated access lanes to the bridge, which blocked access to people coming to the bridge from I-95. The study would assess what would happen if those lanes were used for highway drivers rather than Fort Lee drivers, emails suggest. 
 
 “What is driving this?” asked Daniel M. Jacobs, a general manager in the Transportation and Revenue division in the Port Authority, asked in a Sept. 6 email. Gerrard Quelch, a Port Authority supervisor, agreed. 
 
 “A single toll lane operation invites potential disaster,” he wrote. 
 
 Although Port Authority staff knew the closures would happen, Fort Lee officials have said they did not. That appeared intentional. In emails between Durando and Fulton about the second day of closures, Durando replied that he would tell his staff. 
 
 “Just to your staff -- right?” Fulton replied just three minutes later. 
 
 The Fort Lee mayor, Mark Sokolich, repeatedly contacted the Port Authority to find out what was going on. 
 
 “Please call me as soon as possible in hopes that we can resolve this issue and reverse a policy change that is wreaking havoc on Fort Lee …. the otherwise cooperative and supportive host community to the busiest bridge in the world,” Sokolich wrote in a letter. 
 
 The traffic jams resulting from the closures invoked the ire of Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority, who was appointed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. (The two-state agency includes appointments made by both governors.) On the morning of the fourth day of closures, Foye said the decision to close access roads in Fort Lee “violated federal law and the laws of both states.” 
 
 “I will get to the bottom of this abusive decision which violates everything this agency stands for; I intend to learn how PA [Port Authority] process was wrongfully subverted and the public interest damaged to say nothing of the credibility of this agency,” Foye wrote. 
 
 “This hasty and ill-advised decision has resulted in delays to emergency vehicles. I pray that no life has been lost or trip of a hospital- or hospice-bound patient delayed,” Foye wrote. 
 
 Foye’s email appeared to have prompted an effort by his second-in-command, New Jersey appointee Baroni, to pressure Foye to keep quiet. 
 
 “Pat we need to discuss prior to any communications,” Baroni wrote to Foye at 8:40 a.m. 
 
 “Bill we are going to fix this fiasco,” Foye replied. 
 
 “I am on my way to office to discuss. There can be no public discourse,” Baroni wrote. 
 
 Several days later, Christie appointees on the authority's board of commissioners were blaming Foye for a leak to the Wall Street Journal about the lane closures. 
 
 Christie appointee Wildstein and Bill Stepien, the governor’s political strategist who was canned Thursday, also corresponded about Foye. ||||| A trove of documents from the traffic scandal that has enveloped New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie shows frenzied complaints and confusion among police and government officials when the governor's aides cut off local lanes onto a bridge into New York City. 
 
 The documents were released to the public Friday afternoon by a legislative committee in New Jersey that is investigating the September lane closures in the town of Fort Lee. Mr. Christie apologized for the closures on Thursday after a selection of the documents revealed... ||||| Chairman David Samson of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey blasted the agency’s executive director for leaking information about September’s controversial lane closures at the George Washington Bridge. 
 
 Samson accused Executive Director Patrick Foye of the leaking the information so that he could, ride in “on a white horse to save the day,” according to documents made public today. 
 
 In a Sept. 18 email, Samson, an appointee of Gov. Chris Christie, accused Executive Director Patrick Foye of “stirring up trouble” in the wake the lane closures. Foye ordered the closures lifted on Sept. 13, four days after they were implemented. 
 
 “Scott: I just read it and it confirms evidence of Foye’s being the leak, stirring up trouble,” Samson said in an email to Vice Chairman Scott Rechler. “This is yet another example of a story, we’ve seen it before, where he distances himself from an issue in the press and rides in on a white horse to save the day. (If you need prior examples I will provide)–in this case he’s playing in traffic, made a big mistake.” 
 
 Samson's email was referring to a story about the closures in the Wall Street Journal published on Sept. 17, citing unnamed officials at the Port Authority as saying they had caused tensions within the bi-state agency. 
 
 Rechler and Foye are both appointees of Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, and Rechler defended Foye in a response to Samson’s email. 
 
 “I don’t agree with your assessment of Pat’s involvement,” Rechler wrote back. “Perhaps you or Bill have some different intelligence than mine that will change that view.” 
 
 Bill Baroni was the Port Authority’s deputy executive director at the time. He resigned last month as investigations into the lane closures intensified. 
 
 Apart from Baroni, three other officials have lost their jobs: David Wildstein, the former Port Authority operative who gave the direct order for the closures; Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff; and Bill Stepien, a former Christie campaign manager and political consultant, who had been the governor's choice for state Republican Party chairman. 
 
 Boroni told lawmakers in November that the closures were related to a traffic study. But Democrats remain unconvinced, contending that the closures were in retaliation for the Fort Lee mayor’s failure to endorse Christie’s re-election bid last year. 
 
 Samson's email was among documents made public today after being subpoenaed from current and former Port Authority officials by the Assembly Transportation, Public Works and Independent Authorities Committee. One of them was Foye's Sept. 13 email criticizing the closures as a threat to public safety and possibly illegal, which was leaked to the press in October. 
 
 Some of the documents were made public on Wednesday, including an exchange between Kelly and Wildstein indicating Kelly took part in the planning of the closures and knew they would cause traffic problems in Fort Lee. 
 
 Another Wildstein-Kelly email released on Wednesday mentioned Samson, this time in reference to an email by Foye angrily denouncing the closures as dangerous and possible illegal, and ordering them lifted immediately. 
 
 "The New York side gave Fort Lee back all three lanes this morning," Wildstein wrote to Kelly that Friday, Sept. 13. "We are appropriately going nuts. Samson helping us to retaliate." 
 
 The exchange did not indicate just what kind of help was given. 
 
 
 
 The Port Authority press office did not respond to requests for comment. Samson, Foye and Rechler did not respond to separate requests sent via email. 
 
 
 
 Following Wednesday's release of documents, Samson issued a statement saying he was "extremely upset and distressed over today's disclosures." 
 
 "To be clear, neither I nor anyone on the Board had any knowledge of these lane closures until the receipt of Executive Director (Patrick) Foye's email. We expect to get a complete picture as a result of the Port Authority's Inspector General's investigation which commenced a few weeks ago and thereafter will take appropriate action." 
 
 RELATED COVERAGE 
 
 • Thousands of pages of Chris Christie bridge scandal documents released 
 
 • Bridgegate fallout: Chris Christie apologizes in wake of bridge scandal, fires top aide 
 
 • Complete coverage of bridge scandal 
 
 
 
 
 

– Media outlets have had the better part of a day to pore over thousands of newly released emails and texts related to the Chris Christie traffic mess, and if the New Jersey governor can take one bit of good news from the coverage, it's that none of the documents directly implicate him as having a role in the shutdown of two lanes on the George Washington Bridge. But the trove also means that the story won't be dying down anytime soon. Some of the common angles being emphasized are that Port Authority staffers were warned in advance that the lane closures would be a "potential disaster" for emergency responders and others; Christie-appointed staffers sought to suppress media coverage; and there was nasty infighting between New York and New Jersey port officials. A look at some headlines: Bergen Record: "Vulgarity-laced emails show attempts to silence GWB story" Star-Ledger: "Documents show Port Authority chairman blasting executive director" New York Times: "Bridge Scandal Papers Point to Cover-Up by Chris Christie Allies" New York Post: "Christie appointee ordered officials' silence on Bridgegate" Los Angeles Times: "Bridge emails show Chris Christie aides ignored public safety" Wall Street Journal: "'Disaster' Predicted Before Lane Closures" Sample email, from Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority and an appointee of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo: “I will get to the bottom of this abusive decision which violates everything this agency stands for; I intend to learn how PA [Port Authority] process was wrongfully subverted and the public interest damaged to say nothing of the credibility of this agency." Christie appointees accused him of grandstanding.