New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the subject of intense scrutiny after media outlets made public controversial emails and text messages from one of his top aides.
The messages tie a high-ranking members of the governor's administration and political allies to an apparent political revenge plot to create traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., by closing inbound lanes on the George Washington Bridge.
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Both the Wall Street Journal and North Bergen Record published conversations between Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's deputy chief of staff, and David Wildstein, a long-time friend of the governor who recently announced he would resign from his position at the Port Authority at the end of the year.
Wildstein turned over the conversations in response to a subpoena issued by a panel of New Jersey lawmakers who are investigating the traffic controversy.
In an Aug. 13 email exchange, Kelly wrote to Wildstein, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee." Wildstein responded a minute later with, "Got it."
On Sept. 9, two of the three local access lanes to Fort Lee from the George Washington Bridge were suddenly closed under the guise of a traffic study by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The lane closures caused a week of gridlock in the town.
The political undertones behind the traffic move were apparent in a text message exchange between Wildstein and an unidentified recipient on Sept. 10, after Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich complained that the traffic was making it hard to get children to school.
"Is it wrong that I'm smiling?" the recipient wrote to Wildstein. "I feel badly about the kids. I guess."
Wildstein replied, "They are the children of Buono voters," referring to Democratic candidate Barbara Buono, who Christie beat in a landslide in the November gubernatorial election.
Though it's not spelled out explicitly in the message exchanges, The Record speculates that the lane closures were political retaliation aimed at Sokolich for failing to endorse Christie in the gubernatorial election.
In addition to Wildstein, Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the Port Authority, whom Christie appointed, has also resigned.
The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, has been fast to jump on the controversy with the YouTube video embedded below. It seizes upon the emails as ammunition against Christie, who is atop the list of frontrunners for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

It's unclear how much this revelation will affect Christie's presidential aspirations. Though the messages do not link Christie directly to the bridge controversy, they will not help him quell his reputation as a political bully.
Christie has also publicly denied that his administration holds ill will toward Sokolich, which could prove problematic if the scandal intensifies.
"I don’t ever remember even meeting the mayor of Fort Lee and I certainly don’t remember getting any briefings at any time from the campaign staff that this was someone who was on our radar screen as a potential endorsement so that’s why none of this makes any sense to me," Christie said at a Dec. 19 news conference.
Christie has not yet addressed the newly-public conversations. Wildstein is scheduled to appear before state lawmakers Thursday to testify about the documents — his email and text message exchanges are embedded below.
GWB Emails by Jake Dobkin

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