Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Tuesday described the FBI’s invasion of former President Trump’s personal safe, as part of its unprecedented raid of Mar-A-Lago, as “fair game,” making the remarks during an appearance on Sirius XM’s Julie Mason Mornings.
Christie began by speaking from his own experience as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, explaining that moving to proceed with a search warrant against a sitting or former public official is one of the “most grave type of decisions.”
“Because you’re dealing with people whose public reputations, no doubt, will be called as question just by the execution of a search warrant. So I have a few thoughts about this one,” he said to host Julie Mason. “We really don’t know what we don’t know.”
“So I have concerns this morning about it. But I also am not going to jump to any conclusions. Because I know I don’t know all the facts,” he said, expressing hope that a federal judge “would take special care in reviewing something like this before they authorize the search of a former president.”
Police direct traffic outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
“Extraordinary situations require extraordinary actions,” he said when confronted with the fact that the FBI is often not forthcoming on their ongoing investigations.
Christie said if officials wanted to do a search on someone very high profile in New Jersey, he “wanted to see that we have enough evidence already to bring charges against the person.”
Local law enforcement officers are seen in front of the home of former President Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida on August 9, 2022. (GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images)
“I did not want to do a search like this, and then have that search yield nothing at the end of it. That to me would be unjust,” he said, adding that he does not know if Attorney General Merrick Garland or FBI Director Christopher Wray followed that same standard.
However, when Christie was asked about the invasion of Trump’s personal safe at Mar-A-Lago, he shrugged it off.
Supporters of former US President Donald Trump stand outside his residence in Mar-A-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida on August 8, 2022. (GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images)
“Is there some legal distinction when you search a home and there’s a safe. … Is there a difference? Or is that fair game?” the host asked.
“No, it’s fair game, and you just have to display probable cause to a federal judge, that there are contents that you have reasonably — there are contents within that safe that would assist in proving a violation of the law,” Christie said, adding that the move is not “out of bounds.”
“But again, you have to have the factual underpinnings to be able to convince a federal judge that you need and have the right to do that,” he added.
Because of that, he continued, it is very important for the American people to see the search warrant affidavit, as it will reveal what the Justice Department thought was sufficient to execute this search.
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Christie’s response to the raid was quite measured compared to those of conservatives and Trump allies, many of whom have demanded an investigation into the unprecedented raid, which they deemed an overt “weaponization of the Justice System.”