breaking news former president Donald Trump has been indicted again Trump was reportedly sitting with close political advisers at his golf course in Bedminster here in New Jersey when he received the news it's the first time a former U.S president will face federal charges the indictment includes 37 felony counts including Espionage and conspiracy to obstruct and the willful retention of documents the documents themselves detailing the U.S nuclear program and its potential vulnerabilities to military attack plus a wide range of intelligence from the CIA the Department of Defense and the NSA among other federal agencies included in the indictment are evidence photos depicting boxes of documents stacked inside a bathroom documents even Spilled Out on a storage room floor jack Smith is the special counsel investigating president Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents the men and women women of the United States intelligence community and our Armed Forces dedicate their lives to protecting our nation and its people are laws that protect National Defense information are critical Safety and Security of the United States and they must be enforced violations of those laws put our country at risk the charges come as the 2024 presidential campaign is just getting underway with the former president clearly the front-runner but now with not one but two indictments hanging over him and what could be a very long legal battle overshadowing any campaign might this open up a bigger Lane for former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who will not be afraid to use all of this against him for that and more we're joined by North jersey.com columnist Charlie Stiles all right Charlie Donald Trump has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents now what does this mean for his presidential campaign that's a a really tough question to answer you would think that this kind of devastating news would um destroy his campaign it would make him unelectable um but a recent Monmouth poll showed that his support actually grew over the first quarter of this year when he was a indicted in New York and B found guilty in a Civil Trial on sexual misconduct charges so it just defied the laws of the political universe and I think what happens with Trump is that when he's comes into these legal legal troubles or faces these legal troubles his base uh sort of circles the wagons and um sees themselves as a kind of a victim of the the liberal legal political establishment the difference though with this the weight of the U.S government is now saying Donald Trump committed crimes this isn't just a Manhattan attorney financed by George Soros right this is the federal government coming in and weighing the hammer and secondly I think is the accumulation effect this growing cloud is getting darker and darker and you just have to wonder how sustainable it is how much those supporters are going to actually uh hang in there for the Long Haul for this guy his fan base is loyal so you know what do you think Trump's indictment does for Chris Christie's run he seems to be the only one willing to go after Trump and he will no doubt go on the attack will it help Christy well I think in the broad stroke uh yes I mean Chris Christie is made his whole campaign uh an attack on Trump he's going to be the Trump Slayer the one that's going to prosecute Trump and in public uh but I think in the short term he's got to be careful because of the things I mentioned that that sense of the base feeling victimized and sharing in the victimization of trump um and watching that support grow he's I think uh he's going to go a little gingerly on this and he's going to wait for the facts to spill out so that he has more of a complete case to make the attack for him to go at it right now without a full indictment without it fully being aired out in the public Arena will uh it'll he runs the risk of alienating the very people that he's trying to to win over and that's going to be a tough hall for Christy anyway because he enters this race deeply unpopular well here's the thing we know Christy has had his challenges when we think about Bridge gate to contend with so how does this indictment against Trump compare this is far more significant than Bridge gate Bridgegate didn't have a clear statute that it was violent they had to compose a sort of a creative adaptation of federal law to make the case here this is pretty clear-cut there's a possibility that he had in his possession documents that were vital to the National Security closing the George Washington Bridge was vital to the free flow of traffic and Commerce in the New York area on the northeast and that was an important thing but this has a broader implications Charlie I have to be honest I am looking forward to those debates and to see what happens uh thank you so much for breaking this all down and joining my pleasure [Music] [Music]