The e-mails, however, do not show whether Christie was involved in the lanes closure, and the governor denied knowledge of the scheme in a statement late Wednesday.
"I do believe there's enough evidence to show that the governor had knowledge of this, and that he hid that knowledge," said Mr. Willis, whose children ranged in age from 13 years to 3 weeks old.
But Mr. Bailey also admitted taking tens of thousands of dollars in bribes without the governor's knowledge, said he had not been in the room when Mr. Siegelman met with Mr. Scrushy, and could offer only his recollection of a brief exchange with the governor on the matter.
Testimony from Mr. Johnson in the inquiry into the Paterson administration's response to the domestic violence matter would be valuable to investigators in helping them to determine the extent of the governor's knowledge about the matter and when he first learned about it in any detail.
And if they doubted the radio reports or weren't certain about their governor's knowledge, and if they were still physically strong and mentally steely, then they had to decide -- and decide quickly, before the snows eliminated any choice at all -- whether they wanted to remain in Abdulgan and leave themselves to fate, or whether they wanted to try an escape.
And the fact that his paid legal counsel could not produce a report that erased doubts about the governor's knowledge of the dirty tricks campaign poses a political problem.
Based on their longstanding duty of conducting inspections, the county governors possess contextual knowledge about all of the health-care organizations in their region.
Through a spokeswoman, the governor denied any knowledge of the arrangement.
Mr. Bush's office said the governor had no knowledge of the essay before he named Mr. Regier, but declined to comment further.
He said that the governor had no knowledge of the so-called Bridgegate plot and that case had already been "thoroughly investigated".
