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TRENTON, N.J. (CNN) — Newly revealed emails between key figures in a political scandal roiling the administration of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were turned over to a state court judge on Monday.
Members of a legislative committee investigating whether Christie appointees deliberately orchestrated traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee last year as part of a political payback scheme suggest the governor's campaign manager was kept in the loop during and after the tie ups.
Christie was close to wrapping up his successful reelection campaign last September when certain access lanes to the bridge were closed for several days.
"We are talking about documents that came from other folks that lead the committee to believe that there might be some context concerning things that might have happened before or after the lanes were closed," said State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, a Democrat and co-chair of the investigative panel.
One exchange included in briefs filed in Mercer County Superior Court dated October 1 refers to questions asked by a Wall Street Journal reporter.
Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for Christie's campaign, wrote to campaign manager Bill Stepien: "Coordinating with Drewniak on this, but heads up. I'll let you know when I hear back from him on the conversations on his side of things."
Michael Drewniak is Christie's chief spokesman. In a reply two minutes later, Stepien wrote, "Awesome."
Stepien asked in another message sent later that day, "Who is writing the follow-up story on Fort Lee?"
In a text message that evening to Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, another Christie appointee, the documents show that Stepien wrote, "WSJ writing a follow-up on the Fort Lee issue. You probably know but wanted to make sure."
In a subsequent text, Stepien praised Baroni for the explanation he gave that the lane closures were part of a traffic study, which has since been called into question.
According to the brief, Stepien wrote, "Hey great job yesterday. I know it's not a fun topic, and not nearly as fun as beating up on Frank Lautenberg, but you did great and I wanted to thank you."
It is a foregone conclusion, based on the type of communications that are going on, that, in fact, there are additional emails that are out there.
–Reid Schar
Lautenberg was a former U.S. senator who died the previous June.
Democratic Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the other co-chair of the investigative committee, said the emails show an attention to detail by the governor's campaign "on the management of the response to the inquiries being made by the press on the George Washington Bridge lane closures."
From other messages Wisniewski said you can assume that "Stepien is part of a team."
That assumption leads members of the investigative committee to believe Stepien can shed some light onto who knew what when about the scandal.
Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson was asked last week to enforce subpoenas served by the committee on Stepien and another official at the center of the scandal, former Christie Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Kelly.
The pair are the only two asked to turn over materials who are fighting the request so far. They claim that complying with subpoenas would infringe on their constitutional right to remain silent.
"It is a foregone conclusion, based on the type of communications that are going on, that, in fact, there are additional emails that are out there," said Reid Schar, argued in court last week.
Schar is a former federal prosecutor who is leading the committee's investigation.
Stepien's name first surfaced in email and text messages around the scandal that were released in January.
Neither Stepien nor Kelly have been accused of any wrongdoing, and Christie denies any knowledge of the traffic mess until after it occurred.
Jacobson could rule on the matter by the end of the month.
The U.S. Attorney's office is also looking into the traffic scandal.
CNN's Chris Frates contributed to this report
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