Kushner denies pushing Christie out of Trump transition

Jared Kushner, the influential son-in-law of Donald Trump, did not push Governor Christie and his allies out from the president-elect's White House transition effort, he said in a rare interview posted online Tuesday.

Since Christie was replaced last Friday as the transition chairman after six months helping to assemble Trump's administration, multiple reports have quoted anonymous sources saying his ouster was led by Kushner, a 35-year-old real estate developer and owner of the New York Observer. Kushner has reportedly harbored ill will toward Christie, who as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey prosecuted Kushner's father, Charles, in 2004, in a sordid scheme that exposed political corruption by the state's largest Democratic donor and derailed his nomination as chairman of the Port Authority.

Related: Trump spokesman: Christie demotion rumors 'inaccurate'

Charles Kushner's guilty plea of filing of false tax returns, making false statements to the Federal Election Commission and retaliating against a cooperating witness was a major victory for Christie in building the resume that he touted during his ascendance to the governorship.

''It is incredibly humiliating for a man of Mr. Kushner's power and prestige to say in an open court, to say three times, guilty as charged," Christie said during a news conference at the time.

But in the interview, with Forbes, Jared Kushner said any resentments he may have about Christie sending his father to prison were put aside around the time Trump named the New Jersey governor, a friend since 2002, his transition chairman.

“Six months ago Governor Christie and I decided this election was much bigger than any differences we may have had in the past, and we worked very well together,” Kushner said. “The media has speculated on a lot of different things, and since I don’t talk to the press, they go as they go, but I was not behind pushing out him or his people.”

Reports have also said that Kushner and Trump were unhappy with the progress of the transition under Christie's leadership and that the conviction of two former Christie aides in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure trial earlier this month hurt the governor's standing with Trump.

In a radio interview Monday night, Christie said his relationship with Trump is "great." He said he talked to Trump about the trial as it unfolded over seven weeks in a federal courtroom in Newark "and I told him what was going on and he believed me."

At the trial, several witnesses, including some of the governor's top advisers, testified that Christie knew of top staff's involvement in the plot that prosecutors said was intended to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee by clogging the borough's access to the bridge. Christie's former deputy chief, Bridget Anne Kelly, and his top appointee to the Port Authority, Bill Baroni, were found guilty in the scheme. A former agency executive, David Wildstein, pleaded guilty to masterminding the retribution plot. Christie was not charged.

"I told him I had nothing to do with it and I had nothing to do with it," Christie said he told Trump. "Of course we talked about it."

Even though Kushner denied playing a role in Christie's demotion from chairman to one of six vice chairmen of the transition, it is still a mystery why the governor and has allies were dismissed. His former chief of staff Rich Bagger and top adviser Bill Palatucci were demoted and named advisers, while other Christie allies and hires were removed from the effort.

Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, has been a steady influence on the president-elect throughout his tumultuous campaign and may serve in some capacity in the new administration.

Trump said Tuesday that Kushner, an Orthodox Jew, is unlikely to work in a formal role, but may be involved in peace negotiations between Israel and Palestinians, according to The New York Times, whose editors and reporters tweeted portions of an interview with the president-elect as it happened at the newspaper's headquarters.

“There’s a lot of people who have been asking me to get involved in a more official capacity," Kushner told Forbes. "I just have to think about what that means for my family, for my business and make sure it’d be the right thing for a multitude of reasons.”