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, 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. 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.  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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
– 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.