Former New Jersey Gov.Chris Christieslammed comments fromJeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwellin which she said PresidentDonald Trumpwasnot guilty of any wrongdoingand praised him as "cordial" and "kind." "She might as well have taken out Donald Trump, or President Trump, and said, 'The man who can pardon me has never done anything wrong. The man who can pardon me has always been wonderful," Christie, a rarevocal critic of Trumpin the Republican party, toldABC's "This Week"on Aug. 24. "I don't think Donald Trump had anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein that was untoward or illegal, but we're going to believe Ghislaine Maxwell?" Christie asked. "Give me a break." Maxwell told Attorney General Todd Blanche during hours of interviews last month that Trump "was never inappropriate with anybody," and was "a gentleman in all respects." "Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me. And I just want to say that I find, I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now," Maxwell said, according totranscripts of the conversations releasedpublicly by the Justice Department on Aug. 22. Maxwell is serving out a 20-year sentence after she was convicted of procuring young girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, the disgraced financier whose past tight relationship with Trump has stirred a firestorm in recent months. Maxwell has appealed her conviction and signaled in the interviews that she hopes for a pardon from Trump, who has not ruled it out, sayinghe is "allowed" to pardon her. A pardon for Maxwell would further fan the flames of raging speculation over the nature of Trump's connection to Epstein and whether his administration withheld the Epstein files because they contain Trump's name or implicate him. Maxwell was alsoquietly moved to a lower-security prisonsoon after her interviews with Blanche. TheWall Street Journal reportedthat Attorney GeneralPam Bonditold Trump his name was in the files and that Trump sent Epstein a bizarre birthday card with a doodle of a nude woman, further fueling suspicion. Trump has slammed them as a "hoax" and said they were "run" by his commonly invoked enemies, like former PresidentJoe Bidenand FBI Director James Comey. The House Oversight Committeesubpoenaed the Epstein filesand received the first trove on Aug. 22, but Democrats on the committeehave saidthat the vast majority of documents they received were already public. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Chris Christie criticizes Ghislaine Maxwell over her Trump praise
