Kushner family company in lawsuit accuses Jersey City of anti-Trump ‘animus’

Jared Kushner’s family development company is suing Jersey City, N.J., alleging that the city and its redevelopment agency broke a multimillion-dollar construction contract out of “political animus towards President Trump.”

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey on Wednesday, alleges that the city and the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency sought to delay the construction of the company’s One Journal Square project, because of Kushner’s ties to Trump. 

Kushner serves as a senior adviser to the president and is married to his elder daughter, Ivanka, who is also a senior adviser in the White House.

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“Defendants ultimately determined to place politics over principle, their obligations under the Redevelopment Agreement, and the law, by engaging in egregious actions to interfere with JSP’s ability to develop the Project, following the election of President Trump, Jared Kushner’s father-in-law, as president of the United States and following President Trump’s appointment of Jared Kushner as a senior advisor,” the lawsuit says.

Among the actions Kushner’s family company alleges the city took is failing to fulfill a pledge to help the developer obtain a tax break, as well as other actions that allegedly delayed the project.

The lawsuit also names Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop (D), who publicly opposed the tax breaks during his reelection bid last year, as a defendant in the case.

It argues that Fulop’s opposition to the tax breaks was based on “purely political reasons to curry favor with City residents and to harm the Kushner Companies based on Jared Kushner’s role as a senior advisor to Trump.”

Fulop responded to the lawsuit, asserting in an email sent journalists and reported by NJ Advance Media that the Kushners were seeking to “use the presidency to be pretend victims.”

“It’s not like the Kushners have a great deal of credibility in anything they say,” Fulop reportedly said in the email. “Their entire lawsuit is hearsay nonsense.”

Bottom line – the same way they illegally use the presidency to make money is the same way here they try to use the presidency to be pretend victims. They will do anything to manipulate a situation.”