MANCHESTER, NH - FEBRUARY 06: Republican presidential candidates New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (L) and Donald Trump share a laugh during a commercial break in the Republican presidential debate at St. Anselm College February 6, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Sponsored by ABC News and the Independent Journal Review, this is the final televised debate before voters go to the polls for the New Hampshire primary on February 9. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said that Donald Trump “goes to bed every night, thinking about the sound of that jail cell door closing behind him.”
The former New Jersey governor was referring to the 37-count indictment that was brought against Trump last month. He was charged with willful retention of national security information and conspiracy to obstruct justice and was arrested and arraigned at the Miami federal courthouse, where he pleaded no guilty on all counts.
A staunch Trump critic, Christie appeared for an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and offered his predictions for Trump’s impending trial, which could start as early as August.
“Because part of what the Department of Justice has always done, under all of the attorneys general that I’ve seen in my lifetime, is we offer you a plea — which I’m certain they will — and you turn it down and you take us to trial and you’re convicted, that judge is sending you to jail,” said Christie.
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“When push comes to shove,” he continued, “I’m not so sure [Trump] won’t take a plea. Because if that’s the one way he knows he can avoid prison, I think he just may.”
Christie has established himself as an anti-Trump Republican since joining the 2024 presidential race in June. He has consistently condemned the former president for committing alleged crimes and continued to do so on Tuesday.
“If you have done the simple thing that I think almost any other American would have done, which would have been to get the documents back, he wouldn’t have been prosecuted,” said Christie on Trump’s decision to deny any mishandling of the more than 300 documents found in his Mar-a-Lago residence.
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