In the Bridgegate scandal, much has been made of what New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie knew and when he knew it. But the other governor who also runs the Port Authority, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has long downplayed his knowledge of the scandal. 

Documents filed Tuesday night by Bridgegate defendant Bill Baroni suggest that was a deliberate strategy.

Cuomo wasn't asked about the politically-motivated lane closures on the George Washington Bridge until three months after they occurred. "I don't know anything more basically than what was in the newspapers. This basically is a New Jersey issue," Cuomo told upstate radio station WCNY.

But now a new set of emails suggests that Cuomo's top appointees at the Port Authority were, two months before those remarks, actively discussing how to respond to the burgeoning scandal with top Cuomo aide Howard Glaser.

One of the suggestions? That Pat Foye, the Port Authority executive director, produce two different memos — one for the governor's office and a fake one that might some day be made public.

"How about the following — he types a detailed memo that he produces on his home computer, gives a hard copy to the 2nd floor and then type up a general memo for his files."

“Second floor” is Albany-speak for the floor of the state capitol where Cuomo and his top staff have their offices.

The email, penned by David Garten, the chief of staff to Port Authority Vice Chair Scott Rechler, goes on to say: "that way we have a thorough documented account, it's in the 2nd floor's hands...and then a general memo at the PA in case we get subpoenaed."

There's no evidence that such a memo was ever written. At the time, the only threat of subpoenas was from New Jersey lawmakers, not the U.S. Attorney.

In a phone interview, Rechler, still the vice chair, said the memo should be understood in the context of the time, when Governor Christie was engaged in a re-election campaign. "The motive for us was to not fuel political flames until we understood what was going on and let the process take its course," Rechler said, noting that Foye had ordered the lanes reopened as soon as he heard of the closures.

"We were living in a place where a bad actor like David Wildstein was bullying people and leaking documents," Rechler added, "so it felt like you couldn't say or do anything without it being captured by him." 

Wildstein, once Christie's $150,000-a-year Director of Interstate Capital Projects, pleaded guilty in May to felony charges, admitting to disrupting bridge traffic for political reasons.  It was also revealed Tuesday that he took a computer hard drive from his boss, Bill Baroni, when he was fired.

The newly-released emails suggests a level of communication with the governor's office about the scandal that Cuomo has never acknowledged. Glaser is described as speaking with both Foye and Rechler, though it's unclear what Glaser relayed to Cuomo.

Cuomo's press office did not respond to inquiries about what he learned from Glaser. Glaser also rebuffed email and phone inquiries. 

But the documents suggest that the "New York side" was far more concerned about upsetting the apple cart at the Port Authority than has previously been revealed. 

After an early October, 2013 article in the Wall Street Journal about the closures, the former chair, David Samson, wrote to Rechler of Foye, whom he suspected of leaking the story, "he is playing in traffic, made a big mistake."

That email reads like a threat, though it's unclear what Samson was threatening. But New York's response was set. "Pat said the 2nd floor wants to sit back, continue to have no rule (sic), and let it play out however it plays out," Garten wrote to Rechler.