Chris Christie assesses Trump's potential second indictment: 'These are all self-inflicted wounds'
Christie tells 'Fox & Friends' Trump is 'center of negative attention all the time'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) joined "Fox & Friends" Thursday to discuss his decision to run for president and explain why he believes the legal troubles faced by former President Trump are "self-inflicted wounds." The former federal prosecutor reacted to Trump potentially facing a second indictment over his mishandling of classified documents.
CHRIS CHRISTIE: The problem with all of this is that it's self-inflicted. In the end, I don't know that the government even knew that Joe Biden had those documents or not. They did know Donald Trump did and in fact asked voluntarily for them for over a year and a quarter and got them back in dribs and drabs. And at least if you believe the accounts that you're reading right now and I and I take them with a grain of salt because I did this work for seven years and I know you can't believe anything until an indictment comes out. But if in fact, you're keeping those things knowingly, even after the government has asked for you to bring them back, the excuses about, ‘oh, they were classified, declassified automatically when I left the office,’ well, that's just wrong.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on April 4, 2023. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
I know that as a legal matter. And the problem with this is let's go to pull it back for a second. It's a bigger problem whether he's indicted or not, because these are all self-inflicted wounds. Return the documents and stop doing this. Why do you have to be the center of negative attention all the time? Why do you have to be angry all the time? And that's what Donald Trump has done. So I'll wait to see you make a judgment on the indictment if and when one comes. But certainly, as you know, on the Alvin Bragg stuff I said at the time, that's a ridiculous indictment and one that I would have never brought as a prosecutor but it doesn't mean that the next one of the next one are not going to be problematic. And by the way, that's weight that Donald Trump will have to carry if he's the nominee into a general election in November. And why do we want to take that risk?
Attorney General Merrick Garland announces he will appoint a special counsel to oversee the investigation into former President Trump's handling of classified documents and actions before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, on Nov. 18, 2022, at the Justice Department. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Federal prosecutors reportedly notified Trump’s attorneys that he is the target of a criminal investigation regarding his handling of classified materials after serving as commander in chief, two sources with knowledge of the ongoing grand jury probe confirmed to Fox News Wednesday.
Trump’s handling of classified materials after leaving office in 2021 has been the focus of an investigation led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed as special counsel on the matter in November 2022.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The appointment came just months after the FBI searched for missing classified documents in a raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Aug. 8, 2022.
That Justice Department notification came days ago, said sources, and is an indication the Special Prosecutor may be close to deciding whether to bring charges in the months-long investigation.
The fact prosecutors privately informed Trump’s lawyers he is a target is another indication, sources said, that the former president’s own actions on handling classified material are the focus of the investigation.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' Greg Wehner, Bill Mears and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.