Democratic nominee seized on the guilty verdicts for Chris Christie’s former aides and suggested he should resign as the head of Trump’s transition team

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign seized on the guilty verdicts handed down in the “Bridgegate” trial on Friday, suggesting the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, should resign as the head of the transition team for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.



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Two former aides to Christie were convicted of creating an epic traffic jam at the George Washington Bridge in September 2013, for what prosecutors said was political revenge, capping a trial that cast doubt on Christie’s claims he knew nothing about the scheme.

In response, Christie said he “had no knowledge prior to or during these lane realignments, and had no role in authorizing them”. He also said he would “set the record straight in the coming days”.

Speaking to reporters on the Clinton plane, campaign chair John Podesta said: “[Christie’s] two top aides today were just convicted of corruption for political intimidation.”

Noting Christie was a top surrogate for Trump, Podesta added: “Rather than just crisscrossing the country … and talking about cleaning up the swamp, [Trump] might start by draining his own swamp and asking Mr Christie to resign.”

Christie was scheduled to campaign on Trump’s behalf on Saturday, in the battleground states of New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Since joining Trump’s campaign, after the end of his own presidential bid, the governor has been a vocal defender of some of the billionaire’s most controversial comments and has headlined fundraisers.

Last week, according to a report in the Washington Post, he called into a fundraiser in Washington that sought to raise $100,000 for Trump.

During the Republican primary, however, Trump said he believed Christie was involved in the Bridgegate plot, declaring at a rally in South Carolina in December: “The George Washington Bridge, he knew about it.”

Prosecutors said Bridget Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, a Christie appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, plotted with Christie ally David Wildstein to close lanes at the bridge and create gridlock in order to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, for not endorsing Christie for re-election.

Wildstein, a high-ranking Port Authority official, pleaded guilty to orchestrating the scheme and was the prosecution’s star witness. In federal court in Newark on Friday, Kelly and Baroni were found guilty of all counts against them. The most serious charges carry up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing was scheduled for 21 February.

A federal jury took five days to reach a verdict in the scandal that helped sink Christie’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, though he has never been charged.

In a statement issued on Friday, the governor said: “On 9 January 2014, I apologized to the people of New Jersey for the conduct exhibited by some members of my administration who showed a lack of respect for the appropriate role of government and for the people we serve.

“Those people were terminated by me and today, the jury affirms that decision by also holding them responsible for their own conduct.”

Saying his experience as a “former federal prosecutor” helped him understand the case, Christie continued: “Like so many people in New Jersey, I’m saddened by this case and I’m saddened about the choices made by Bill Baroni, Bridget Kelly and David Wildstein. Today’s verdict does not change this for me.”

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Kelly and Baroni testified they believed the lane closures were part of a legitimate traffic study because, they said, that was what Wildstein told them. The defense portrayed Wildstein as a liar and a dirty trickster – “the Bernie Madoff of New Jersey politics” – and argued that Christie and his inner circle had thrown Kelly under the bus.

“They want that mother of four to take the fall for them,” attorney Michael Critchley said in a thundering closing argument. “Cowards. Cowards.”

One of the most damning pieces of evidence was an email in which Kelly wrote: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” Then, as the gridlock unfolded and Sokolich complained about children unable to get to school, she texted: “Is it wrong that I am smiling?”

On the stand, Kelly said she was referring to what she thought was a traffic study and expressing satisfaction that it was going well. As for why Kelly deleted the messages, her lawyer suggested she was afraid she was about to be made the scapegoat.

Kelly, Baroni and Wildstein all testified that Christie was informed about the lane closures either before or while they were going on. Wildstein said Christie was told about the traffic jam as it was happening and that when he learned of Sokolich’s distress over not getting his calls returned, he laughed and sarcastically joked that nothing political was going on.

But it was not clear from Wildstein’s testimony whether Christie knew the bumper-to-bumper mess was manufactured for political reasons. Kelly testified that she told Christie the lane closures were a traffic study when she informed him of the plans about a month beforehand.

In his statement on Friday, Christie said: “Let me be clear once again, I had no knowledge prior to or during these lane realignments, and had no role in authorizing them. No believable evidence was presented to contradict that fact. Anything said to the contrary over the past six weeks in court is simply untrue.”

He concluded: “I will set the record straight in the coming days regarding the lies that were told by the media and in the courtroom.”

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

The gridlock at the foot of the nation’s busiest bridge, which connects New Jersey to New York City, began on the first day of school and held up commuters, school buses and emergency vehicles. Sokolich’s pleas went unanswered for four days on orders from Wildstein, the defendants testified.

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

He dropped out of the 2016 race after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary and said recently that the scandal probably influenced Trump’s decision not to pick him as his running mate.

On Friday, the Democratic National Committee called on Christie to both resign as governor and cancel any remaining appearances for Trump’s campaign.

“How can Trump trust Christie’s judgment to hire the key staff for his administration if … his top aides have been found guilty of federal crimes?” DNC spokesman Mark Paustenbach said in a statement.

“The fact that Christie’s name is frequently floated as a potential attorney general in a Trump administration should tell you all you need to know about Trump’s tolerance for unethical behavior.”

While the trial did not definitively pin the scheme on Christie, it reinforced his reputation among his 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 hit HBO mafia drama The Sopranos.

Christie once threw a water bottle at Kelly in anger, she testified. And Wildstein told the jury that Christie called him “Mr Wolf”, after the character in the movie Pulp Fiction who is called in to clean up dead bodies.

According to testimony, Christie’s office also used the Port Authority to punish or reward local politicians. Among the goodies the agency dispensed were pieces of steel from the original World Trade Center, destroyed on 9/11.