On August 8, after FBI agents raided the former president’s Florida resort residence where they found confidential and classified documents. The search was personally approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland as part of an investigation of whether or not Trump potentially mishandled classified information. The ex-president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in regard to the documents, and said that any classified documents that he took had been declassified.
Christie’s comments on ABC’s This Week come after Trump has sought in recent days to appoint a special master—an independent arbiter who would oversee the review of records seized from his residence. The DOJ is appealing a judge’s approval of the special master, arguing it will slow the investigation. However, Trump’s attorneys have said the special master is needed to sort out personal materials or documents covered by attorney-client or executive privilege that may have been taken during the search.
On Sunday, Christie talked about the FBI raid after he was asked about the DOJ’s chances with its appeal.
“I think the Justice Department’s chances are pretty good. And I think they are because their main thrust is that some of these may be covered by executive privilege,” he said. “Well, there’s only one executive who can assert the privilege, and that’s the one who is the current executive, Joe Biden. A previous executive can’t assert executive privilege. They’re not the executive any longer.”
The former Republican governor added that the DOJ had sought the records from Trump for over a year.
“This has been 16 months that the Department of Justice has been saying please, asking nicely, negotiating with his attorneys, taking up partial production, seeing a non-response to a subpoena. They had no choice, in my view, but to go in and take them, because of the nature of the documents,” Christie said.
Christie’s position on the Mar-a-Lago search stands in contrast to other Republican officials who have blasted the FBI raid, including Trump.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,” Trump said in a statement on August 8 following the raid. “After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” he added, calling it “prosecutorial misconduct” and a “weaponization of the Justice System.”
However, some other Republican officials have defended the search. In an interview on Fox News earlier this month, Bill Barr, who served as attorney general under Trump, pushed back when questioned about whether the search could have been avoided.
“People say this was unprecedented, but it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club,” Barr said. “[The government was] deceived on the voluntary actions taken. They then went and got a subpoena, they were deceived on that. The facts are starting to show that they were being jerked around and so how long do they wait?”
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s press office for comment.
