Chris Christie, once the chair of Donald Trump's transition team after Trump won the 2016 presidential election, is about to publish a new book about his short-lived service on Team Trump. A copy of the book, "Let Me Finish," was obtained by the Guardian for review.
According to the review, one of the most prominent parts of the book involves Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who, according to Christie, made it his goal to take down the ex-governor over a decade-old grudge.
In 2005, Christie writes, while he was serving as a federal attorney, he prosecuted one Charles Kushner, a real estate tycoon and the father of Jared, on witness tampering and tax evasion charges.
In his book, Christie says Jared Kushner went out of his way to make sure Trump denied Christie a position in his administration — at one point even while in the same room as Christie himself.
"He implied I had acted unethically and inappropriately but didn't state one fact to back that up," Christie writes about the incident, which he says took place in April 2016. "Just a lot of feelings — very raw feelings that had been simmering for a dozen years."
Kushner reportedly insisted it "wasn't fair" his father had to spend a year in prison, adding that the matter involving Schulder should have been kept in the family or handled by rabbis.
"Steve Bannon… made clear to me that one person and one person only was responsible for the faceless execution that Steve was now attempting to carry out. Jared Kushner, still apparently seething over events that had occurred a decade ago," Christie writes.
Christie eventually left Trump's team; certainly not lacking in ambition, he aspired to the position of vice president, US attorney general or chair of the Republican National Committee. He repeatedly rejected other positions Trump offered, including those of labor secretary, homeland security secretary and ambassadorships in Rome and the Vatican, the Guardian recalls.