Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said Donald Trump faced significant legal peril from accusations that he mishandled classified documents, continuing criticism of his rival for the GOP presidential nomination.
“Those are some pretty bad facts that put a lot of loyal, patriotic Americans at risk,” Christie said on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power” on Wednesday.
Out of all of Trump’s legal troubles, “certainly the worst so far is the classified documents situation,” Christie said.
Christie, a former US attorney who prosecuted more than 100 public officials by his count, has been the most vocal Trump critic in the Republican presidential field, and has staked much of his campaign on the ability to confront the frontrunner, once a close ally of his, in debates.
The former governor also cautioned Republicans against leaping to Trump’s defense over his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, as the former president awaits a possible indictment in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Other top Republicans, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, have characterized the special counsel’s probe into Trump’s actions as politically motivated. Christie said he would tell McCarthy to wait and see the indictment first.
“Maybe these charges are completely bogus and political, like the ones in Manhattan were in my opinion,” he said, referring to New York state charges over alleged hush-money payments to an adult film actress.
Trump said Tuesday he received a notice on Sunday to appear before the grand jury investigating the events of Jan. 6, and that he expects to be arrested and face charges. It would be his third indictment this year following federal charges in Florida over his handling of classified documents and the state charges in Manhattan.
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The only one of Trump’s 2016 rivals to challenge him again for the 2024 nomination, Christie has so far failed to separate himself from a pack of second-tier candidates. At 2.4% in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, he’s in seventh place behind Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and US Senator Tim Scott.
But Christie is faring better in the first primary election state of New Hampshire, where he’s in third place at 6.3%.
