Christie says DC jurors in Trump election trial will be ‘fair’

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie on Sunday pushed back on the argument that D.C. residents, who overwhelmingly supported President Biden over former President Trump in the 2020 presidential race, could not be fair jurors in a trial related to Trump’s efforts to stay in power after the 2020 election.  

“My view is, yes, I believe jurors can be fair. I believe in the American people. And I believe in the fact that jurors will listen fairly and impartially,” Christie told CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview on “State of the Union.”

Christie, the former New Jersey governor, invoked his experience as a Republican U.S. attorney in a predominantly blue state in making the case that jurors can judge the case fairly. 

The latest indictment against Trump, related to his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, is being tried in the District of Columbia. Some Trump allies have argued that the political leanings of the potential jurors in D.C. and an Obama-appointed judge assigned to the case make it less likely that Trump will get a fair trial.  

“Dana, unlike anybody else in this race, I actually did this for seven years as the U.S. attorney in the fifth largest office in the country, in New Jersey, which is a very blue state,” Christie said.

“And I could tell you, I watched as jurors put aside any of their partisanship or politics and listened to the evidence and returned in my state fair and just verdicts, 130 of them in political corruption cases that we did without a defeat and never was one of them overturned on appeal during my seven years,” Christie added.

Christie and Trump are both running for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.