Two created massive traffic jam on New York bridge for 'political revenge'

Bridget Kelly, Mr Christie's former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, a Christie appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were found guilty of all counts against them.

Sentencing is scheduled for February 21, and the most serious charges carry up to 20 years in prison.

The federal jury took five days to reach a verdict in the scandal that helped sink Mr Christie's Republican campaign for president.

He has denied any knowledge of the scheme beforehand or while it was going on and has not been charged.

Prosecutors said Kelly and Baroni plotted with Christie ally David Wildstein to close lanes on the bridge and create gridlock in September 2013 to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Mr Christie for re-election.

Wildstein, a high-ranking Port Authority official, pleaded guilty to orchestrating the scheme and was the prosecution's star witness.

'Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.'

Kelly and Baroni told the court they believed the lane closures were part of a legitimate traffic study because that was what Wildstein told them.

The defence portrayed Wildstein as a liar and a trickster - "the Bernie Madoff of New Jersey politics" - and argued that Mr Christie and his inner circle had used 44-year-old Kelly as the scapegoat.

"They want that mother of four to take the fall for them. Cowards. Cowards," Kelly lawyer Michael Critchley said in a thundering closing argument.

One of the most damning pieces of evidence was an email in which Kelly wrote: "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

As the four days of gridlock unfolded and Fort Lee mayor Mark Sokolich complained about children being unable to get to school, she texted: "Is it wrong that I am smiling?"

She told the court she was referring to what she thought was a traffic study and expressing satisfaction that it was going well. Her lawyer said she deleted the messages because she was afraid she was about to be made the scapegoat.

Kelly, Baroni and Wildstein all gave evidence that Mr Christie was informed about the lane closures either before or while they were going on, contrary to the governor's repeated denials.

Wildstein said Christie was told about the traffic jam as it was happening and that he laughed and sarcastically joked that nothing political was going on when he learned of Mr Sokolich's distress over his calls not being returned.

But it was not clear from Wildstein's evidence whether Mr Christie knew the bumper-to-bumper mess was manufactured for political reasons, and Kelly said she told him the closures were a traffic study when she informed him of the plans about a month ahead of time.

Siding with prosecutors, US District Judge Susan Wigenton told jurors they did not have to find that Kelly and Baroni knowingly intended to punish Mr Sokolich to convict them of conspiracy.

The gridlock at the foot of the nation's busiest bridge - a span that connects Fort Lee, New Jersey to Washington Heights, New York City - began on the first day of school and held up commuters, school buses and emergency vehicles.

Mr Sokolich's pleas went unanswered for four days - on orders from Wildstein, the defendants said.

At the time, Mr Christie was considered a top Republican presidential contender and was trying to run up a big landslide re-election victory to demonstrate his crossover appeal as a White House candidate.

He ultimately dropped out of the presidential race after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary and said recently that the scandal probably influenced Donald Trump's decision not to pick him as his running mate.

Mr Christie is a now a senior Trump adviser and has campaigned for him.

While the trial did not definitively pin the scheme on Mr Christie, it reinforced his reputation among critics as a bully, with accounts of profane tirades, threats of bodily harm and tough-guy posturing among the governor and his inner circle that seemed straight out of The Sopranos.