President Donald Trump threatened to revive scrutiny of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's role in the 2013 "Bridgegate" scandal, lashing out after Christie criticized him on ABC News.
"Can anyone believe anything that Sloppy Chris says?" Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social. "Do you remember the way he lied about the dangerous and deadly closure of the George Washington Bridge in order to stay out of prison, at the same time sacrificing people who worked for him…
"For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again? NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!"
Christie, a former federal prosecutor, had said earlier on ABC's "This Week" that Trump "doesn't care" about separating politics from criminal investigations, pointing to FBI raids last week targeting former national security adviser John Bolton.
"He said he's the chief federal law enforcement officer in the United States: Donald Trump sees himself as the person who gets to decide everything, and he doesn't care about any separation," Christie said Sunday. "In fact, he absolutely rejects the idea that there should be separation between criminal investigations and the politically elected leader of the United States.
"This is much different than it's ever been run before."
That latter part of that statement is rich, considering former President Joe Biden and Democrats in deep-blue districts used the power of their offices and justice to pursue prosecutions of Trump during the Biden administration.
Notably, as even Christie admits next, Americans voted for Trump for this.
"But look, let me say candidly to the American people who are watching, you were told this: You were told that this was what he was going to do, and not by me, by Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign," Christie continued. "He told you he was going to do this, that he was going to have a Justice Department that acted as his personal legal representation, and that is what they're doing."
The rehashing of "Bridgegate" might serve as chum for Christie's Democrat critics and New York media that had long attacked him, but The New York Times is reporting on the remarks and reaction in a story critical of the Trump administration's pursuit of justice more than Christie's potential culpability.
On "Bridgegate," Christie has long denied involvement in the lane closures, which were allegedly orchestrated by aides to punish a Democrat mayor. Two of his associates were convicted but later cleared by the Supreme Court. The scandal helped sink Christie's 2016 presidential campaign.
After having served as a campaign adviser for Trump, helping him prepare for debates, Christie's relationship with the president soured.
Christie has since emerged as one of Trump's sharpest Republican critics, while Trump has increasingly targeted former allies who break with him publicly. Christie quickly dropped out of the 2024 GOP primary challenge against Trump after failing to gain support.
Trump's Sunday night attack on Christie came just before he blasted ABC and "NBC Fake News" and threatened to review the Federal Communications Commission's licensing.
Trump broadened his ire at ABC and its corporate peers, accusing the network — along with "NBC Fake News" — of functioning as "an arm of the Democrat Party."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.