'A liar and a coward': Chris Christie knocks Donald Trump for touting indictments to supporters

WASHINGTON — Former New Jersey Governor and 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie, who has shown no reluctance to attack Donald Trump, went after the former president for parading his criminal indictments to supporters at a conservative political conference.

“He’s a liar and a coward. He’s not getting indicted for anyone other than because of his own conduct,” Christie said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union”.

Speaking at the Turning Point Action conference, Trump told attendees Saturday he considers his indictments “to be a great badge of honor and courage.”

“I am doing it for you. I am being indicted for you. Better me than you right?” Trump said, adding he believes he was indicted on behalf of “more than 200 million people that love our country, far more than 200 million.”

Trump was first indicted in March by a grand jury in New York City over his alleged role in a hush money payment scheme to two women who claimed to have had sex with Trump before the 2016 election. Trump was indicted again by a federal grand jury over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the Oval Office.

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Christie scoffed at Trump’s statements and took aim at the former president’s documents case on Sunday, saying “there is no other of the 200 million Americans he spoke about who illegally retained classified national secrets after being asked politely, quietly and professionally for 18 months to voluntarily turn them over.”

“There’s no other of those 200 million Americans who lied to their own lawyers about where those documents were and there’s none of those other 200 million Americans who lied to the prosecutors about it and flashed around documents regarding an Iranian war plane to anyone who didn’t have the clearance to see them,” he added.

Christie referenced an audio recording from 2021 of Trump discussing what he apparently knew was a classified document from the Pentagon related to a potential attack on Iran, among other allegations from the indictment against the former president.

“He’s indicted because of his outrageous conduct,” Christie said. “When he says he’s doing it for us, that’s a lie. And when he was doing all the things that he said he was doing with those documents, it shows exactly what a coward he is.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chris Christie says Donald Trump was indicted for 'outrageous conduct'