Chris Christie says he will “wait to react” to potential Trump indictment
Republican presidential contender Chris Christie will “wait to react” to a potential second Trump indictment, the former New Jersey governor told NBC News.
“Having done that for seven years, I know you never know when someone’s getting indicted, and the only person who probably knows in this instance is the special counsel,” Christie said, referring to his time as a federal prosecutor. “So I’ll wait to react to seeing whatever he does.”
He added that he does not know how the potential federal indictment could compare to Trump’s indictment in New York.
“I think indictments have to be read, and the evidence has to be evaluated before you can give an opinion,” he said.
Budowich questioned about statement he made on Trump’s behalf, source says
A source familiar with today’s grand jury proceedings in Miami says Taylor Budowich testified for about an hour in the special counsel Jack Smith’s inquiry into Trump’s retention of classified documents.
Budowich answered questions, the source said, about a past public statement on behalf of Trump representing that the former president had not retained classified records. He was questioned about how he formed the basis for that understanding.
At least one email communication was also of interest to investigators, the source said.
According to the source, today’s proceeding was focused exclusively on the issue of classified documents — not on the other part of Smith’s investigation of Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Taylor Budowich criticizes grand jury appearance as a ‘bogus and deeply troubling effort’
Confirming his appearance before the federal grand jury, Budowich slammed the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents as a “bogus and deeply troubling effort to use the power of government to ‘get’” the former president.
“I fulfilled a legal obligation to testify in front a federal grand jury and I answered every question honestly,” the onetime Trump spokesman tweeted.
“America has become a sick and broken nation — a decline led by Joe Biden and power hungry Democrats,” he added. “I will not be intimidated by this weaponization of government. For me, the need to unite our nation and make America great again has never been more clear than it is today.”
Budowich said he will “not be deterred from pursuing” Trump’s re-election.
Trump TV ad criticizes special counsel Smith
A new ad released today by the Trump campaign previews the former president’s political response to any possible additional criminal indictments, painting prosecutors, including special counsel Jack Smith, as “wolves” working to distract the country from the problems of President Joe Biden.
The new ad, which will air on national cable but has not yet been placed, according to the Trump campaign, opens with a question that echoes Trump’s own social media posts: “Just how far are the radical left and the beltway bandits willing to go to stop him?”
Trump has long cast the various criminal investigations into his conduct both as president and as a private citizen as “election interference” — an effort to use to the courts to defeat him, when his political foes could not. The ad puts at least some of Trump’s campaign war chest behind that argument.
“Let’s impeach him. Let’s get tainted, radical left prosecutors to charge him,” a narrator says, as images of former FBI Director James Comey, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Smith and former special counsel Robert Mueller appear on the screen. “Let’s conspire with Hillary and the FBI, with fake stories about him — all to distract from Biden’s incompetence, weakness and money-grabbing corruption.”
The ad shows a gnarling wolf spliced in with other images, including footage of Biden falling on stage at an event last week.
Following his indictment in New York in April, Trump effectively rallied Republicans to his defense with a similar rhetorical argument — forcing Republicans to take sides between a “radical left” DA, or the party front-runner. Every major GOP presidential candidate, except for Asa Hutchison, embraced Trump’s argument at the time. His campaign touted a fundraising bump of more than $12 million in the immediate aftermath of his indictment.
What was Taylor Budowich doing for Trump
Budowich served in an all-encompassing role for the former president, traveling with him and serving as his spokesman before Trump formally launched his 2024 bid for president. At that point, Budowich officially announced that he’d be at the helm of the Trump-aligned super PAC, MAGA Inc., which, at the time, had a budget of more than $100 million.
Taylor Budowich gave public statements about Trump’s handling of documents
As a spokesman for the former president and his PAC, Taylor Budowich also provided public statements to news outlets in response to questions about the special counsel’s investigation of the documents, potentially making him an important witness.
In at least one example, The Washington Post quoted him in an article on October 12, 2022, in which he declined to offer detailed responses to questions but provided a statement. Prosecutors are likely to question him today about how he received information about Trump’s retention of classified documents and anything he knows about the movement of boxes.
D.C. chief judge says court is ‘all geared up’
Chief Judge Jeb Boasberg just told the reporters at the Washington, D.C., federal courthouse: “Everyone is all geared up this week, but I’m not sure this is the week to be all geared up. We’ll see.”
Boasberg has been responsible for ruling on recent disputes that have arisen out of the grand jury in Washington.
Taylor Budowich, former Trump spokesman, appears at Florida courthouse
Taylor Budowich, a former spokesman for Trump who also worked for the former president’s super PAC, appeared at the Wilkes D. Ferguson Jr Courthouse in Miami.
Budowich was spotted with his attorney walking into the courthouse.
Dozens of Secret Service agents have been subpoenaed or appeared before grand jury in Trump docs probe
About two dozen Secret Service agents have been subpoenaed or have appeared before a federal grand jury in Washington that’s looking into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed Tuesday.
The sources said prosecutors have interviewed agents assigned to Trump’s security detail at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, about 24 of whom have been asked to testify before the grand jury. All complied, the sources said.
The testimony occurred in the “past few months,” meaning not recently, since the grand jury has been on hiatus, the sources said.
Read the full story.
#Witness #appears #Florida #Trump #classified #documents #investigation
