Gov. Chris Christie says his objections over giving former national security adviser Michael Flynn a job in President Donald Trump's administration played "a significant" role in his firing as head of the president's transition team.

The governor also said the Trump aides who made a show of rejecting his transition recommendations by tossing six-months of his work in a trash bin made "a big mistake."

Christie, speaking to reporters in Trenton, shed some new light on why he was unceremoniously dumped as head of Trump's transition team a year ago.

His refusal to embrace Flynn was "a significant" reason for his "early departure from the transition," Christie said.

"Suffice to say that I had serious misgivings which I think have been confirmed by the fact that he pled guilty to a felony in federal court," he said.

The governor didn't say who pushed Flynn's job with the administration or who forced him out.

Flynn was ultimately given the role as national security adviser. Trump fired him after just a month in the White House once news reports indicated he had discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition.

He pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.

The subject came up in Trenton after a reporter asked Christie how he would have run the transition.

The governor laughed, then joked the answer is "in about four volumes of books" that were tossed in the trash the "day I was terminated."

"I think what folks who were involved in that transition have now painfully learned at the expense of the country is that experience matters," he said. "You cannot run a transition as an outsider."

Months after Christie was fired The New York Times reported a senior Trump aide "made a show of tossing" Christie's plans "into a garbage can."

Flynn served as a vice chairman of the transition team.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.