Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ripped former President Donald Trump Thursday, calling the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner a “one-man crime wave” as he faces new federal charges in the classified documents investigation.
Christie, also a Republican candidate for president and former Trump ally, made the comments during a podcast interview with “Pod Save America” that aired as special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment against the 77-year-old.
Podcast host Jon Lovett, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, asked Christie during the interview if he had “ever heard of someone facing between four and six trials within a few months for different legal issues?”
“No, usually, folks like this commit discrete crimes and wind up having one trial,” Christie quipped.
“This guy has been a one-man crime wave,” the former governor went on. “Look, he’s earned every one of them. If you look at it, every one of these is self-inflicted.”
Christie later suggested that some of the criminal cases against Trump were based on “prosecutorial judgement and discretion in some respects that are questionable.”
“But what I say to people all the time is, whether you agree or disagree with the prosecutors, look at the underlying conduct,” Christie added.
He asked listeners to consider whether the alleged behavior was “appropriate for someone who wants to be president of the United States.”
Trump was accused in Thursday’s filing of asking a Mar-a-Lago staffer to delete surveillance footage to conceal evidence that he was keeping documents from federal investigators. He is also at risk of a federal indictment in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the Jan. 6. 2021, Capitol riot.
The former president was indicted in March for allegedly altering business records to hide payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. The money, distributed by Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen, was meant to keep Daniels quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign about an alleged sexual encounter between her and Trump a decade earlier.
Former President Donald J. Trump is expecting charges in relation to the federal investigation of the January 6, 2020, Capitol Riot. Here are all of the legal troubles Trump will face as he heads toward the 2024 election.
Trump was slapped with 37 federal charges in June for purportedly keeping about 11,000 government documents, including those related to sensitive national security matters, on the property of his Mar-a-Lago, Fla., estate – including in a bathroom.
A Trump spokesperson called the new charges “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt” by the Biden administration “to harass President Trump and those around him” and to influence the 2024 presidential race.
With Post wires.