Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ® compared new charges against former President Trump that accuse him of working with Mar-a-Lago employees to delete surveillance footage at the club to the tactics of the fictionalized Corleone organized crime family.

“It appears that way,” Christie said in an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” when asked whether he sees a clear-cut case for obstruction of justice.

It’s pretty brazen. These guys were acting like the Corleones with no experience. I mean, the day after a grand jury subpoena is served, which includes the surveillance tapes, they go down to Mar-a-Lago, and Walt Nauta appears to be the Fredo of this family. They sent him to go down there. And they sent him to go and delete it. This is bad stuff,” Christie continued.

A superseding indictment against former President Trump included three additional charges related to the former president’s alleged efforts to work with employees to delete security camera footage in the case examining his willful retention of classified documents, bringing the total number of charges to 40.

Christie, a former Trump ally-turned-critic and now 2024 GOP contender, pushed back on the claim from fellow Republican challenger Vivek Ramaswamy that there was no underlying potential crime committed – and that this was simply an alleged “process crime.”

“You can’t say there was no underlying potential crime here. This was the withholding of confidential classified information from the government after 18 months of asking Donald Trump to return it voluntarily. Not only did he not return it, he lied about having it. This is not the kind of thing we could do,” Christie said.

Christie, a former federal prosecutor, noted the potential harmful effects “on our troops and our intelligence officers by having this stuff just laying around, and him willy-nilly showing it to whoever he feels like, to be a show off on the back deck at Mar-a-Lago.”

“This is not what a former president should be doing. And it’s certainly not something that someone who wants to be president should be doing,” Christie said.

  • @Wayward@compuverse.uk
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    271 year ago

    Christ Christie? The dude who used Sandy and NJ resources to attack those who didn’t play by his rules, licked Trump’s lifted boots and constantly acts like he’s the only grown up in the room while looking like he ATE the grown up in the room?

    As a former NJ resident, fuck him and the titanium reinforced horse he rode in on.

    • @UnfortunateTwist@beehaw.org
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      101 year ago

      The same Chris Christie who allegedly laughed when he was told about the traffic havoc of closing down 2 lanes on the George Washington Bridge?

      • @Wayward@compuverse.uk
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        141 year ago

        The same Chris Christie who shut down the state but spent a holiday weekend in a state park / beach that was closed to the public because of the state shut down?

      • @CmdrShepard
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        41 year ago

        The same bridge closure that lead to a patient dying in the back of an ambulance because they couldn’t get through?

    • @t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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      101 year ago

      I don’t want Christie to win anything, but I do want him to tear Trump down some more. The enemy of my enemy is welcome to keep attacking my enemy.

    • @P1r4nha@feddit.de
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      81 year ago

      Yes fuck him. But it’s good there’s at least one prominent Republican voice tied to reality. Fucking low bar met by an asshole, but he’s better than the rest.

      • @Wayward@compuverse.uk
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        131 year ago

        Nope. Fuck him too. He’s only tied to reality now because he’s trying to distance himself as the DoJ is preparing to drop the hammer on Trump. This is Trumps transition manager. He helped move him into the White House, he doesn’t get to slink away from that.