Donald Trump threatened to investigate Chris Christie after the former New Jersey governor criticized him on ABC’s This Week earlier on Sunday.
Trump wrote on Truth Social, “I just watched Sloppy Chris Christie be interviewed on a ratings challenged ‘News’ Show, ‘This Week With George Slopadopolus,’ on ABC Fake News (By the way, what the ‘hell happened to Jonathan Karl’s hair? He looks absolutely terrible! It’s amazing what bad ratings, on a failed television show that was forced to pay me $16,000,000, can do to one’s appearance!). Can anyone believe anything that Sloppy Chris says? Do you remember the way he lied about the dangerous and deadly closure of the George Washington Bridge in order to stay out of prison, at the same time sacrificing people who worked for him, including a young mother, who spent years trying to fight off the vicious charges against her. Chris refused to take responsibility for these criminal acts. For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again? NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT”
Trump’s comments came two days after the FBI raided the home of John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser who, like Christie, has criticized the president in media appearances. Like Bolton, Christie is a former supporter of Trump’s.
On This Week, Christie expressed skepticism of Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted of sex trafficking and conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein, in questioning by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The transcript of the Maxwell interview was released on Friday, in which she said of Trump, “As far as I’m concerned, President Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me. And I just want to say that I find — I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now. And I like him. And I’ve always liked him.”
Maxwell also said that she did not hear from Epstein that Trump did anything inappropriate.
Christie said, “Why should we believe a damn thing Ghislaine Maxwell has to say about anyone? Now, that doesn’t make Donald Trump guilty of anything. In fact, in my own experience … I don’t think Donald Trump had anything to do with — with Jeffrey Epstein that was untoward or illegal. But we’re going to believe Ghislaine Maxwell? Give me a break.”
The Bolton raid reportedly had to do with his handling of classified information. While Christie said that the fact that two judges signed off on a search warrant suggested that “there’s real evidence that they believe something is there,” he thinks “it’s kind of funny to hear the president talk the way he does about Bolton and classified information, yet when he had the classified information, the same rules didn’t apply.”
Christie said Trump was following through on his campaign promises to seek retribution. “He told you he was going to do this, that he was going to have a Justice Department that acted as his personal legal representation, and that is what they’re doing,” Christie said.
Christie’s political career was on the rise until the so-called Bridgegate scandal, in which Fort Lee, NJ toll lanes were closed during morning rush hour, a move that was suspected of being an act of political revenge because the city’s mayor had not endorsed Christie’s reelection bid. He was not indicted, but some of his aides were. Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie’s deputy chief of staff, was convicted, but that was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
At the time Kelly’s conviction was overturned, in 2020, Trump congratulated Christie and wrote on Twitter that it was “a complete and total exoneration (with a 9-0 vote by the U.S. Supreme Court) on the Obama DOJ Scam referred to as ‘Bridgegate.’ The Democrats are getting caught doing very evil things, and Republicans should take note. This was grave misconduct by the Obama Justice Department!”
The post Donald Trump Threatens To Investigate Chris Christie After Former New Jersey Governor Criticizes Him On ABC’s ‘This Week’ appeared first on Deadline.