Messages link top aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to a seemingly deliberate effort to create traffic gridlock by shutting a town’s access to a major bridge after its mayor refused to endorse Christie for re-election.

In one email obtained by The Associated Press, a Christie deputy chief of staff tells one of his top transit authority appointees that it’s “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” That’s the New Jersey town with access to New York via the George Washington Bridge, one of the world’s busiest spans.

Christie has maintained the lanes closures were for a traffic study and not punitive. But the emails and text messages among Christie aides and his two top appointees at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey suggest they were involved.

The transit executives have resigned.

(AP)