Rudy Giuliani's admission Wednesday night that President Donald Trump reimbursed his lawyer for paying off a porn star was part of a larger strategy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said.
Christie was on ABC's "Good Morning America" Thursday and reacted to Giuliani's revelation that Trump paid back his lawyer Michael Cohen $130,000 over the course of several months via his retainer.
"There's an old saying in the law, hang a lantern on your problems. So he comes in, he knows that there's been different stories being told about this payment and how it was made," Christie said. "So the fact is, Rudy has to go out there now and clean it up. That's what lawyers get hired to do.
"So he goes out there and he puts it out, rather than having some reporter give breaking news that the president reimbursed it. It's a typical thing to do and it wasn't surprising at all."
A former mayor of New York City, Giuliani is now working on Trump's legal team to help guide the president through the Department of Justice's Russia investigation. The probe began last spring over allegations that the Trump campaign may have colluded with Russia.
The $130,000 payment was made by Cohen to Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Trump 10 years ago. The payment was allegedly made to keep her quiet about the claim days before the 2016 election.
Christie also addressed Trump's legal team as a whole, which has seen the departure of a handful of lawyers in recent months and the arrival of Giuliani and Emmet Flood, the latter who advised former President Bill Clinton during his 1999 impeachment proceedings.
"I've been saying for months that he had a below-grade legal team. And that everything that was going on, including waving certain privileges, not only on the president's behalf but on behalf of people who worked in the White House, was an awful strategic decision," Christie said.
"And now what he's got in Giuliani and in Emmet Flood are two very experienced warriors. Flood having been through it with the Clinton situation, and Rudy Giuliani having been through enough wars himself to know how to fight them."