Kelly said she told Christie about the lane closures one day before sending that email. Christie’s administration characterized the closures as a part of a study billed as a way to speed up traffic. Kelly said Christie approved the study.

Wildstein testified that ex-Port Authority executives and Christie staffers planned to make the traffic from lane closures “as bad as possible.”

The August 13 messages are evidence that the closures were an act of political vengeance, according to federal prosecutors. But Kelly chalked up her correspondence with Wildstein to “sarcasm and humor.”

Kelly testified that she also told the governor there would be “traffic problems” — words she said she often heard from Wildstein — in Fort Lee. When Kelly’s lead attorney Michael Critchley asked if the words were coded language for punishment of a Christie rival, she said, “Absolutely not.”