Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said special counsel Robert Hur’s report looking into President Biden’s handling of classified documents did not cross any lines despite its unflattering characterizations of the president.
“I don’t think so. Look, I did this, as you know, for seven years as the U.S. attorney in the fifth largest office in the country. The fact is they had to give the reasons why they weren’t prosecuting, when you start off [the] report by saying that he ‘willfully and knowingly retained classified documents.’ Well, that’s a violation of the law,” Christie said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked if the report had crossed a line.
Hur released his report on Biden’s classified documents last week. While it did not recommend that any charges be filed against Biden for his handling of classified material, it stated that Biden was “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Biden and his allies have since decried the report as “inappropriate” and “politically motivated” as they attempt to defend the president from more questions concerning his age and memory. Christie, a former federal prosecutor, said Hur needed to explain in the report why he was not bringing charges.
“So, the question then for the prosecutor is then, ‘Why aren’t you bringing charges?’ And he gave two reasons, essentially. One was President Biden’s … lack of memory, his condition, and secondly, was that President Biden cooperated,” Christie said.
“Once documents were discovered, he let them go in and do whatever they needed to do to get those documents and retrieve them, as opposed to what President Trump did,” he continued.
Christie also took aim at some conservative criticism that suggests there is a “two-tiered system of justice” because former President Trump was charged for his handling of classified documents, while Biden was not.
“No, because in fact if there was a two-tiered system of justice, what would have happened would have been they just would have announced that they weren’t prosecuting him and they wouldn’t have given any of the reasons,” he said.