By Dave Warner
NEWARK, Jan 10 (Reuters) - New Jersey legislators on Friday planned to release nearly 1,000 pages of documents that may shed new light on a probe of four days of traffic jams at the George Washington Bridge apparently orchestrated by Republican Governor Chris Christie's top aides to settle a political score.
The release would come the day after Christie, a star of his party seen as a likely 2016 White House contender, fired the staffer who had sent e-mails calling for trouble at the key commuter choke point and repeatedly apologized in a two-hour press conference.
The scandal, which had been brewing for weeks, burst onto the national stage on Wednesday when New Jersey officials released e-mails that appeared to show Christie's staff plotting the lane closures in September to retaliate against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey, because he had not endorsed the governor's re-election campaign.
Christie had counted on the decisive victory he won in November to show a degree of bipartisan appeal and boost his chances of winning his party's nomination for president, political experts say.
During Thursday's press conference, where Christie repeatedly apologized for his staff's actions but also denied knowing of their move, he said he was not yet thinking about a possible 2016 bid.
Observers said that if the scandal turns out to be an isolated incident, voters are likely to look past it. But if it becomes one of a series of disclosures, it could hurt Christie's chances at the presidency.
Christie has long cultivated an image as a brash, tough-talking leader willing to buck his party for the good of his constituents. But on Thursday he struck a more humble tone, saying: "I am not a bully."
The U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Paul Fishman, whose job Christie held before being elected governor, has opened a probe into the decision to close the bridge lanes. The governor also faces a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court on Thursday by Rosemarie Arnold, a lawyer charging that area residents suffered financially from being trapped in traffic because of the closings.
Vilma Oleri, whose 91-year-old mother died after her ambulance got caught in the first day of the traffic jam, told CNN she did not believe the traffic delays were the cause.
"I really believe in my heart that she was already gone when the ambulance go there," Oleri said.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
