Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Thursday that he believes former President Trump kept classified documents after leaving the White House because “he wants to pretend he’s still president.”
“I think it was purely ego,” Christie told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “I think, Jake, he could not and still cannot to this day deal with the fact that he’s the only person outside the state of Delaware to ever lose to Joe Biden, and he wants to pretend he’s still president.”
“He wanted to continue to pretend he was president and show these things to people and say, ‘Look what I still have, look what I still know,’” Christie added.
Trump pleaded not guilty last month to 37 counts related to his handling of classified documents, about 300 of which were recovered from his Mar-a-Lago residence last year.
The federal indictment accused the former president of improperly retaining national defense information, sharing it with individuals who did not have proper security clearances and making efforts to prevent the federal government from recovering the classified documents that remained in his possession.