Christie's prosecutorial attack hits Clinton on matters domestic and foreign

In his Tuesday night speech to the Republican National Convention, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gave the Republican National Convention crowd what it wanted: fresh angles of attack aimed at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, including allegations that her approach to the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram set the stage for the group’s kidnapping of hundreds of school girls in 2014.  

Specifically, Christie charged that Clinton was an “apologist for the Al Qaeda affiliate” because “she resisted for two years” having Boko Haram formally designated as a terrorist organization.

Clinton’s strategy was guided, in part, by advice she had gotten in an open letter from leading experts on that region who warned that  such a designation might actually backfire, giving the group more clout internationally with other terror groups, Politico reported. Several articles scrutinizing Clinton's approach to Boko Haram were published in May of 2014, but the matter has not been a major issue in the presidential race. 

Christie, himself a former U.S. attorney, also blasted Clinton’s support of  the U.S. decisions to thaw U.S.-Cuba relations with new trade deals despite the fact that Communist island nation had provided sanctuary to Joanne Chesimard,  who was convicted of murdering New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.

“How can someone live with their own conscience when you reward a domestic terrorist with continued safety, when at the same time you betray the family of a fallen police eoffcie waiting for decades for justice for his murder?” Christie asked.

Chesimard, and her former attorney, have maintained her innocence.

Also on Christie’s bill of particulars was Clinton’s failed efforts at a “reset” with Russia, her support of the ouster of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, her track record  on Syria, and her role in the U.S.-Iranian nuclear deal negotiations. 

A large portion of Christie’s allegations involved Clinton’s use of her  private email server in her home for official business as secretary of state and, according to Chrsitie, lying about it. 

Christie contrasted and compared Clinton’s version of events and those recently presented by FBI Director James Comey, who sharply criticized the candidate when he went public with his decision not to prosecute in her case. 

The New Jersey governor structured his speech like a prosecutor’s closing argument,  but one in which the audience was empaneled as a jury. After each charge,  the audience sounded a thunderous ”guilty.” On several occasions, it rolled right into a chant of “Jail her, jail her!"

“We cannot promote someone to commander and chief who has made the world a more violent place with very bad judgment she’s made,” said Christie. “We can  not make the chief law enforcement officer  of the United States someone who has risked America’s secrets and lied to the American people days after day.” 

Some in the crowd suggested that Christie should be attorney general in a Trump administration. Bill Knolls, an alternate delegate from Macon, Georgia, who owns his own insurance business, said that Christie, who was considered as a possible vice presidential pick, "would  be a really good attorney general.” "He was inspired and he knows the law," Knolls said. "He made the case. The indictments there. It’s just a matter of somebody turning in the paperwork.”

Chris Warren, a delegate from Anchorage who retired from the local water and wastewater plant, agreed. “He laid out the facts kind of the same way the FBI Director did only he (the FBI director) did not go for the indictment.”

Christie was appointed as a U.S. attorney by President George W. Bush and took office in 2002. At the time, Christie had no prosecutor’s experience but was a major Bush campaign donor.

During his tenure Christie made public corruption a high priority and is credited with scores of convictions of officials of both parties.

As a consequence of the Bridgegate scandal involving a lane closure on the George Washington Bridge as political retribution, however, Christie’s administration has come under the scrutiny of federal prosecutors.