text: Christie: Getting dirt on Hillary from Russians 'probably against the law' | NJ.com
  Updated on July 17, 2017 at 4:42 PM Posted on July 17, 2017 at 2:41 PM
  Gov. Chris Christie.( Andrew Mills/NJ Advance Media )
  GLADSTONE -- Gov. Chris Christie said Monday he believes getting opposition research from a foreign country is "inappropriate" and "probably against the law," but he stressed no evidence has so far emerged to suggest the campaign of his friend, President Donald Trump, did that last summer.
  "The thing that bothers me the most is that people are jumping to conclusions," said Christie, a former federal prosecutor who has always been loathe to speak publicly about ongoing investigations.
  Speaking to reporters outside a new Transportation Trust Fund-backed DOT road resurfacing project in Somerset County, the governor urged patience during the federal investigation into Donald Trump Jr.'s emails and meetings with a Russian lawyer, British businessman and Russian-American lobbyist.
  Last summer, the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, joined with Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to meet with a Russian government lawyer and a Russian-American lobbyist who emailed Trump Jr. with promises of "very high level and sensitive information" that would "incriminate" Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
  That meeting is the subject of a federal investigation into Russian collusion by the Trump campaign by a special counsel to the Justice Department, Robert Mueller.
  Last week, during a visit to Paris, Trump defended his son and son-in-law's attendance at the Russian sit-down at Trump Tower.
  "I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting," Trump said. "It's called opposition research or even research into your opponent."
  "Yeah, I think it would be," Christie said. "I don't think there's any evidence that they did. But I do think it would be. And I think quite frankly, it's probably against the law, in addition to being inappropriate."
  Still, the governor also stressed that there was little reason to think Trump Jr. had any need to disclose the meeting with Russians, but hinted that his current aides, like Jared Kushner, would have been required to.
  "Now, I don't know that Donald Trump Jr. had any obligation to come forward and say who he was meeting with at that time," Christie said. "But certainly, those who are members of the government have an obligation to give everything, completely true and accurate."
  In April, the New York Times reported that Kushner failed to disclose meetings with Russian officials in his security clearance questionnaire, including one with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and another with Sergey Gorkov, the CEO of a Russian state-owned bank.