Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie slammed former President Trump on Monday for his “awful temperament” in response to his mounting legal challenges.
Judge Tanya Chutkan agreed Monday to impose a “narrow” gag order prohibiting the former president from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and their families involved in his Jan. 6 election interference case.
Asked about Trump calling the gag order “unconstitutional,” Christie told former White House press secretary Jen Psaki: “Look, this is the awful temperament of the guy who is currently the front-runner for the domination of my party.”
“And that’s why I’m out here, calling him out directly on this stuff, Jen, because his conduct is beneath the office that he was privileged to hold,” he added in the interview on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.”
Chutkan said Trump’s status as a Republican candidate does not give him the authority to level a “smear campaign” against those involved in the case, stating that “First Amendment protections yield to the administration of justice and to the protection of witnesses.”
The judge, however, ruled against the Justice Department’s (DOJ) request for a wider gag order, declining to limit any speech aimed at herself or at Washington, D.C. She noted the court will use the jury selection process to make sure it does select jurors influenced by Trump’s criticism of the city.
Still, Trump quickly railed against the decision, saying he will appeal it.
“I’ll be the only politician in history that runs with a gag order where I’m not allowed to criticize people. Can you imagine this?” Trump told a rally of supporters in Iowa on Monday. “We’ll appeal it and we’ll see. But it’s so unconstitutional.”
Christie — who previously served as governor of New Jersey and as a federal prosector — argued people shouldn’t be leaning on Trump for interpretation of the Constitution.
“By the way, this is a guy who said it would be OK to suspend the Constitution if you thought that an election were not going your way,” Christie said. “So, I don’t think anyone should really … lean on Donald Trump too much for constitutional interpretation.
Christie argued Trump’s comments on Monday “probably” did not violate the gag order and that it will take something “much more direct” for him to violate it — but he added that the former president would likely cross the line at some point.
“But look, he will,” Christie said, adding, “and the fact is that this is the problem with having a Republican presidential candidate for president who is under indictment in four jurisdictions.”
“These kinds of things happen to defendants all the time; gag orders are often put in place,” he continued. “You’re not allowed to do this. And because he’s running for president, he thinks somehow the law doesn’t apply to him — it does.”
Chutkan said the order does not prevent Trump from criticizing President Biden or claiming the prosecution is politically motivated, a claim the DOJ has repeatedly denied.
“He gets to say … it’s a politically motivated prosecution, if that’s what he wants to say,” Christie said. “But he doesn’t get to attack individuals, which is his, you know, stock-in-trade.”
Criticism of Trump has been a major focus of the former governor’s presidential campaign. Christie has repeatedly called out the former president along the campaign trail.
Despite Trump’s ongoing legal battles, he still is leading the Republican presidential primary race by a wide margin. A recent poll released by Morning Consult showed the former president with 59 percent of primary support, while Christie has garnered around 3 percent.