• Christie's staffers shut down traffic lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge after Fort Lee, NJ mayor Mark Sokolich refused to endorse Christie's re-election bid
• Sokolich said former Port Authority appointee David Wildstein, who is scheduled to testify in a hearing Thursday, 'deserves an ass-kicking'
  
• A U.S. Attorney has opened a probe into the incident
  
• Christie fired deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly, who sent an email to Port Authority officials reading, 'Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee'
  
• Christie denied knowledge of any political shenanigans during his press conference
  
• Emails subpoenaed by a New Jersey state legislative committee reached news outlets on Wednesday
• The vindictive slap could tarnish Christie's chances in a 2016 presidential race, but some observers see his no-nonsense reaction as an asset
  

By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor

PUBLISHED: 11:04 EST, 9 January 2014 | UPDATED: 12:34 EST, 9 January 2014

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie apologized for his staff's conduct in the growing 'Bridgegate' controversy on Thursday and announced the firing of the Bridget Kelly, the top deputy at the center of the scandal

'I terminated her employment because she lied to me,' he said.

'I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team,' he said, insisting that he first learned yesterday about a raft of emails that exposed his staff's conspiracy to politically retaliate against a Democratic mayor by holding his town's traffic lanes hostage.

'I was blindsided,' Christie told reporters.

'I was done with my workout yesterday morning and got a call from my communications director ... informing me of this  story that had just broken on the Bergen Record website. That was the first time I knew about this, the first time I had seen any of the documents that were revealed yesterday.'

'I had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or its execution,' he said later, 'and I am stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here, regardless of what the facts ultimately uncover.'

Christie said that prior to denying any involvement in statements to the press in December, he gave his inner circle one hour to come clean about their connection to the scandal.

'They all reported that there was no information other than what we already knew,' he said.

Kelly's failure to own up to her involvement, he said Thursday, 'shows a lack of respect for the appropriate role of government.'

He said he was 'heartbroken,' 'blindsided,' and 'embarrassed and humiliated.' as the story broke on Wednesday.

New Jersey lawmakers believe Christie's political appointees may face criminal charges in connection with a political revenge stunt that snarled traffic on one of the nation's busiest bridges in September.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO AND THE DOCUMENTS

And Fort Lee, N.J. Mayor Mark Sokolich, whose municipality was targeted after he refused to endorse Christie's re-election effort, says a key Christie ally needs an 'ass-kicking.'

Sokolich was referring to David Wildstein, a former New York New Jersey Port Authority appointee who joked about his Croatian ethnicity in instant messages while he helped plot the traffic mess.

'David Wildstein deserves an ass-kicking,' he said on MSNBC. 'Sorry, there, I said it.'

On CNN, he called the actions of Christie's team a 'venomous form of political retaliation.'

The comments cams as State Senator Ray Lesniak told the Newark Star-Ledger that 'there’s gotta be dozens of state and federal criminal law violations' connected with the scandal.

Lesniak has called on U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman to convene a federal grand jury.

'This is the use of governmental authority for political retribution in a manner that jeopardized lives,' the Democratic lawmaker said.

The New York Times reported Thursday that Fishman had opened an 'inquiry.'

The liberal blog Talking Points Memo asked New Jersey State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg if she thought criminal charges were possible. She replied, 'Yes.'

'I am not a lawyer,' she said. 'I am not a prosecutor, but from where I come from, you can't use public facilities to politically punish people.'

On Wednesday a New Jersey Assembly committee released 22 pages of an estimated 3,000 it has received in connection with subpoenas related to the growing scandal.

Emails and instant messages in those pages depict Christie staffers giddy at their cleverness in punishing Sokolich.

Traffic lanes in Fort Lee feed into the bridge; several were blocked in September, delaying school buses on the first day of school and stranding commuters for hours.

'We had families looking for emergency services, to respond to 911 calls,' Sokolich told MSNBC on Wednesday.

'Calls that take 3 minutes were taking 11 and 12 minutes ... and on top of that we had thousands of kids late for the first day of school.'

Worse yet, a 91-year-old Fort Lee woman died as the lane closures delayed emergency medical help.

Wildstein, the former Port Authority aide who is directly implicated in the fast-developing scandal, is scheduled to testify in a noon hearing before the state assembly's transportation committee.

His lawyers argued Thursday morning that he should not have to appear, claiming that a subpoena demanding his testimony wasn't properly signed.

In the emails and instant messages, Wildstein, Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly and another Port Authority appointee reveled in the calculated effort to retaliate against Sokolich

'Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,' Kelly wrote weeks before the event, suggesting the development of a long-term plan for vindictive political payback.

'Got it,' responded Wildstein, who later resigned.

The Christie administration would later claim that forcing three lanes of the bridge into a single toll booth was the result of a mismanaged traffic study supervised by Wildstein. 

Christie is set to be inaugurated for a second term as governor on January 21.

Texts between two Christie aides depict a callous attitude toward the traffic chaos they caused, including a swipe at children of voters who supported Christie's gubernatorial candidate, Barbara Buono

Emails