Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (D) said if Donald Trump continues to make “nonsense arguments” on TV about the Justice Department’s investigation into his handling of classified documents, he could find himself facing a “self-inflicted accusation”.
“I think they’re all self-inflicted wounds by Donald Trump,” Christie said during a panel discussion on ABC about the possibility that the former president could be indicted in the case. “And you know, one of the things I always tell clients is, you know, don’t fight loudly with the Justice Department. Like, you know, we’re going to fight in court and do the things we have to do. It’s doing the exact opposite.”
“His lawyers are not fighting any of this in court,” he continued. “They really aren’t. They don’t make any of those arguments. He makes all of those arguments on TV. There comes a point where prosecutors are human too. And you want to keep daring them, maybe they will.”
Trump has personally mounted a series of sometimes contradictory defenses after the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and reported finding classified government documents improperly stored there. According to investigators, they had tried to subpoena the remaining documents months earlier, but Trump’s lawyers promised they had turned them all over.
During media appearances and in posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump has, among other excuses, baselessly claimed that the FBI planted evidence at the Palm Beach resort, argued that he had a “standing order” to declassify the documents he took from the oval office to his. White House residence and most recently announced that he could declassify documents with his mind.
Numerous former Trump administration officials have said the “standing order” claim was fiction and should never have been allowed. Presidents can declassify documents, but there is an official process.
In court, where they could face penalties for lying, Trump and his lawyers have not made the same claims. Instead, they have suggested that Trump had the authority to declassify documents while remaining silent on what he actually did. They have also argued that the Justice Department should not be taken at its word that some of the seized documents were classified.
Despite all this, Christie said: “I still don’t think [Trump’s] will be impeached,” but suggested the former president was moving closer to an indictment with each new media blast.
“The more you absolutely antagonize with absurd arguments on television that your lawyers will not make in court, because they are afraid of being sanctioned if they do it because they have no evidence, you get closer to a self-inflicted accusation,” he said.
