Chris Christie accuses Trump official Jared Kushner of ‘faceless political execution’

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a former chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team, has attacked the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for carrying out a political “hit job” against him as an act of revenge.

Mr Christie claims he was ousted from his position leading the transition in 2016 after Mr Kushner carried out a “faceless execution” in retaliation for prosecuting his father, Charles Kushner, a decade ago.

Mr Kushner is now a senior White House adviser with a large portfolio of responsibilities including negotiating Middle Eastern peace, and overseeing criminal justice reform efforts.

“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,” Mr Christie writes in his book, recalling his firing in Trump Tower by the president’s former campaign chairman, according to a review of the text by The Guardian.

He then named the man he was told was responsible: “Jared Kushner, still apparently seething over events that had occurred a decade ago”.

Mr Christie claims that Mr Kushner had targeted him as an act of revenge for putting his father in prison for a year. The senior Kushner was prosecuted by Mr Christie in 2005, when he was then a federal attorney.

Mr Christie charged him with witness tampering and tax evasion in that case.

After his departure from the transition team, Mr Christie finished up his term as New Jersey’s governor, but has not rejoined the Trump team.

Mr Christie has been frequently discussed as a potential candidate for top administration posts, but more recently indicated that he is not interested in such a post.

The former New Jersey governor was one of the first of Mr Trump’s opponents to endorse the future president in 2016 and during the Republican primary season.