TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie's taxpayer-funded legal bills connected to the George Washington Bridge lane closures kept going up during the federal Bridgegate trial, a new report says.

According to documents furnished to WNYC by the state Attorney General's office, the law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher submitted bills for nearly every day since the trial started in mid-September.

It isn't clear what legal services were provided by Gibson Dunn, because the bills provided to WNYC were heavily redacted, but what is certain is that the firm has invoiced nearly $1 million in new legal fees.

The latest documents show the Bridgegate trial has driven up the total billings of the Gibson law firm and its subcontractor, digital forensics experts Stroz Friedberg, to $11,278,532.20, the report found.

That's a sharp uptick in legal fees compared with last fall: Between September of 2015 and March 2016, New Jersey taxpayers only had to fork over $202,827 to Gibson, Dunn, bringing the total to just over $10.2 million.

A spokesman for the state attorney general's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment by NJ Advance Media.

The WNYC report also noted that nearly 30 Gibson Dunn attorneys contributed to Christie's presidential campaign. That included one who interviewed him for the internal "Mastro Report" inquiry that concluded Christie had done nothing wrong: Debra Wong Yang, a friend of governor who also hosted a campaign fundraiser for him. She continued to bill the state for legal work on the case, the records showed.

Taxpayers' bills could shoot even higher if the Port Authority's former deputy executive director Bill Baroni is not convicted: Records shared with WNYC show the bi-state agency spent about $676,600 on the attorneys for other current and former employees who were subpoenaed and investigated in the lane closures' fallout.

The governor is also facing a criminal complaint of official misconduct in Bergen County municipal court, but it's not yet clear if the state will pay Christie's lawyer's legal fees in that case, or if the costs will fall to Garden State residents, the report said.

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.