Chris Christie labels FBI search of Trump home ‘fair game’

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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Tuesday called the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida “fair game,” adding that he hopes more information about the cause of the search will be revealed soon.

The FBI entered the Palm Beach property on Monday after securing a search warrant from a federal magistrate judge. Trump did not detail what the warrant sought, but complained that agents who searched his property “even broke into my safe.”

“It’s fair game, and you just have to display probable cause to a federal judge that … there are contents in that safe that would assist in proving a violation of the law,” Christie said in an interview with Sirius XM’s Julie Mason.

“It’s not anything that’s out of bounds to go into a safe, and it happens frequently in federal law enforcement. 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.”

The search warrant comes as the Justice Department ramps up its probe into the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol and homes in on the former president’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

However, The New York Times reported Tuesday that the search was separate from that probe.

The search in part appears to be in connection with Trump’s failure to turn over some presidential records at the end of his term. Authorities previously retrieved 15 boxes of documents from Mar-a-Lago, a tranche that included classified materials.

Christie, harkening to his tenure as a U.S. attorney in New Jersey, said he trusts the search warrant affidavit was examined by FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, for “something really as unprecedented as raiding the home or office of a former president.”

“This is not something that you should be doing willy-nilly. This is something that should be backed up by grave concerns about the conduct of the subject of the search warrant,” he added.

Christie said he hoped the FBI’s search warrant affidavit would be publicly disclosed to help quell concerns about an unfounded search.

“Seeing this search warrant affidavit, the affidavit that underlies the request for the search warrant from the judge, is going to be the most important document for everyone to see,” Christie said.

The former governor was an ally of Trump during his presidency, but has since become a frequent critic of the former president, calling his midterm endorsements “emotional decisions” and accusing the Republican National Committee of doing Trump’s bidding.

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