Two right-wing extremists, who had planned to abduct a Democratic Governor in the United States and blow up a bridge, have been found guilty of hatching a kidnapping plot.

Prosecutors described the 2020 plan to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as a rallying cry for civil war, something the extremists called "the boogaloo".

Adam Fox, 39, and Barry Croft Jr, 46, intended to bomb a bridge, and so hinder police trying to reach Ms Whitmer's holiday home, where they had intended to abduct her.

They wanted to stop the governor's attempts to limit the spread of the coronavirus in the northern US state, prosecutors said.

Once they had reached a safe house, the men planned to subject the Michigan Governor to a "trial", and then convict her of "treason".

As a contentious presidential election approached in November 2020, prosecutors said the men hoped to push the country into open conflict.

Each now faces the possibility of life in prison. A sentencing date has yet to be announced.

The investigation began when an army veteran who joined a Michigan paramilitary group, became alarmed when he heard talk of murdering police officers.

"You can't just strap on an AR-15 and body armour and go snatch the governor"

The FBI recruited Dan Chappel as an informant, and then recruited two other sources. Finally, they embedded two undercover agents in the group.

This was the second trial for Fox and Croft.

When a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict in April, it was seen as a serious blow for the government in what has been one of the highest-profile cases involving militias for years.

Two other men were acquitted, with two more pleading guilty and then testifying for prosecutors.

"You can't just strap on an AR-15 and body armour and go snatch the governor," Assistant US Attorney Nils Kessler told jurors.

"But that wasn’t the defendants’ ultimate goal," Mr Kessler said.

"They wanted to set off a second American civil war, a second American Revolution, something that they call 'the boogaloo'", he said during the trial. "And they wanted to do it for a long time before they settled on Gov Whitmer."

The jury also found Fox and Croft Jr guilty of conspiring to obtain a weapon of mass destruction.

Barry Croft, a trucker from Bear, Delaware, was also convicted of another explosives charge.

Defence attorneys tried to put the FBI on trial, claiming that they had entrapped the men.

They two were simply "big talkers" who liked to smoke marijuana, and were guilty of nothing but exercising their right to say vile things about Ms Whitmer and the government, they said.

"This isn't Russia. This isn’t how our country works," attorney Joshua Blanchard told jurors. "You don’t get to suspect that someone might commit a crime because you don’t like things that they say, that you don’t like their ideologies."

Attorney Christopher Gibbons said the FBI is not supposed to create "domestic terrorists".

He described Fox as poor and living in the basement of a Grand Rapids-area vacuum shop.

Ms Whitmer, a Democrat, has blamed then-president Donald Trump for stoking mistrust and fomenting anger over coronavirus restrictions, and of refusing to condemn hate groups and right-wing extremists like those charged in the plot.

Over the weekend, she said she had not been following the second trial, but remains concerned about "violent rhetoric in this country".

Mr Trump recently called the kidnapping plan a "fake deal".