Christie calls Mar-a-Lago search ‘fair game'

The search of Donald Trump’s personal safe in an unprecedented federal search at the former president's Florida compound was “fair game,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said in an interview Tuesday morning.

During his seven-year stint as U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Christie had to make “analogous decisions” to the Monday search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, he said in an interview with Sirius XM’s Julie Mason. The search warrant aims to determine whether the former president mishandled White House records, according to two people familiar with the matter.

“I have concerns this morning about it,” Christie, a onetime staunch Trump ally, said. “This is not something you should be doing willy-nilly. This is something that should be backed up by grave concerns.”

When he issued similar warrants, Christie explained, he needed to be confident there would be enough evidence to charge the person being investigated. If nothing was found, the search would be “unjust,” he said.

In a lengthy statement Monday, Trump likened the search to Watergate, saying the FBI “even broke into my safe.” Such behavior during the execution of a search warrant isn’t an uncommon practice, Christie said.

“It’s fair game,” the former governor said. “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.”

It’ll be important for the search warrant affidavit, which contains the reasoning behind the raid, to be made public in the near future, Christie said.

“I hope that more information comes sooner rather than later, because the longer you let this sit out there, the more speculation will generate. And that's not good for anybody,” he said. “Extraordinary situations require extraordinary actions, and if you're going to take an action like this, you can't just treat it like any other case in terms of your public disclosure.”

Christie, a longtime Trump ally, has switched gears over the past year, publicly criticizing his party and the former president. In interviews and a book published last year, Christie took aim at — without explicitly naming — Trump, leading to rumors about a potential 2024 presidential bid.