Former Latest Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday railed against former President Donald Trump for using donations to his political operation to assist pay his myriad legal bills.
“Many of the money that middle-class Americans have given to him, he’s spent on his own legal fees,” Christie said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Christie, a Republican presidential candidate who has distinguished himself as Trump’s fiercest critic in the first field, said that the billionaire former president could simply sell certainly one of his planes, buildings or golf courses to pay those bills.
“But as an alternative he’s taking $25, $50, $100 from on a regular basis Americans who imagine they’re giving it to him to assist elect him president. And he’s paying his legal fees,” Christie said.
His latest attacks followed the discharge of campaign finance reports from Trump’s political operation showing his PAC has spent greater than $20 million on legal fees in the primary six months of the yr alone.
That figure accounted for two-thirds of the group’s total spending in that period, NBC News reported. Those fees likely paid for campaign services beyond just Trump’s personal legal battles. The Associated Press, citing an individual aware of the situation, reported that Trump’s network of political committees has actually spent closer to $40 million on legal fees this yr.
Trump has been criminally charged on dozens of counts in two separate cases since launching his 2024 presidential campaign. Manhattan prosecutors charged him in March with falsifying business records related to hush money payments made before the 2016 election to women who allege that they had extramarital affairs with Trump.
In June, federal prosecutors charged Trump with 37 criminal counts in a case centered on his handling of classified records after leaving the White House in 2021. Trump received additional charges in that case last week over an alleged try and delete surveillance footage from his Mar-a-Lago club.
The special counsel who led that probe can be overseeing a Trump-focused criminal investigation into efforts to interfere with the 2020 election end result. Trump said last month that he’s a goal in that election probe, an indication that charges are likely forthcoming.
At the identical time, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is anticipated to soon reveal whether she is going to file charges on her state-level probe of the efforts by Trump and his allies to interfere in Georgia’s 2020 election.
“Let’s face the facts here. Donald Trump, by the point we get to the controversy in three weeks, will probably be out on bail” in 4 different jurisdictions, Christie said.
“I do not understand how we will not be talking about that,” Christie said. He called out multiple other GOP candidates, including former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, for his or her reluctance to tackle the leading candidate within the race for the nomination.
Christie also noted that Trump’s PAC, Save America, reported spending $108,000 to Hervé Pierre, the designer who has worked with former first lady Melania Trump. Those expenses are described as “strategy consulting.”
Melania Trump has stayed mostly out of sight as her husband campaigns for the 2024 presidential nomination. The Latest York Times reported last week that she has refused his requests to hitch him on the trail.
Neither the criminal charges nor Christie’s attacks have put a dent in Trump’s lead up to now. Recent polls show Trump creaming his competitors, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on the national level. A Latest York Times/Siena College poll released Monday found that no candidates aside from Trump and DeSantis garnered greater than 3% from a sample of likely Republican primary voters.