Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), an outspoken critic of President Trump, mentioned the president benefited from the conspiracy theories surrounding the case of disgraced financier and convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In an interview on ABC Information’s “This Week,” Christie pushed again on the suggestion that it was largely the individuals round Trump fueling the conspiracy theories.
“We can not let the president off that simply,” Christie mentioned. “He benefited immediately from it. He fueled it. He inspired it. And he actually did not cease it.”
“A part of what bothers me on this context is that Donald Trump will get a cross. ‘Oh, no, it wasn’t him. It was someone else,’” Christie continued.
“He took these individuals who had been doing precisely what you simply mentioned and put them in control of the individuals on the entrance line of defending the American individuals from crime and terrorism and counterintelligence operations,” he added, referring to FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. “He inspired this, and by placing them in these positions, he supported the work they had been doing.”
Bongino, a former police officer and Secret Service agent, hosted a radio present and podcast earlier than becoming a member of the administration. He pushed, amongst different issues, conspiracy theories in regards to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol and the Epstein case.
Christie — who suggested Trump in 2020 earlier than launching a main problem in opposition to him in 2024 — mentioned the president “began this Epstein fireplace through the marketing campaign” by suggesting, with out proof, that Democrats had been implicated in Epstein’s alleged crimes and that they had been behind his dying in 2019.
Trump’s Justice Division, nevertheless, released a memo concluding there was no proof suggesting Epstein saved a “shopper record” to blackmail high-profile people. The memo additionally discovered there was no proof to recommend foul play in Epstein’s dying, which had beforehand been dominated a suicide.
The memo spurred fierce backlash from a few of Trump’s supporters, who had lengthy been calling for the federal government to launch recordsdata on Epstein that they thought would expose wrongdoing on the highest degree of elite circles.
“What Donald Trump is studying is, once you begin the hearth, generally you possibly can’t put it out,” Christie mentioned, including that Trump leaned on the Epstein conspiracy theories “to fireside up his personal base, that he was going to resolve it, and he was going to launch it as a result of he is completely in favor of transparency.”
“Nicely, now you get into the job and also you notice, you understand, possibly I do not wish to try this,” he added.
Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi has been the goal of a lot of the vitriol following the discharge of the memo, however Trump has continued to defend her. Christie mentioned that’s no coincidence.
“Let’s be clear about this: Pam Bondi, there isn’t any likelihood, in my view, that Pam Bondi made this determination on her personal. No likelihood. She was instructed by the White Home that we’re not releasing these things. And that is why he is defending her,” Christie mentioned.