Charles Kushner

CHARLES KUSHNER
Saying he is a successful real estate developer is an understatement.

Kushner's firm, The Kushner Companies, worth $1 billion, owns or manages 20,000 apartments in New Jersey and several other states, builds 500 to 1,000 new homes a year and has commercial properties in New York, Newark, Jersey City, Plainsboro, Hoboken and other localities.

Although, some of that property might be less than ideal as Frank DeLucca, mayor of Lindenwold, NJ, noted:

"When (building owners) are slumlords, it makes it even worse. There are overcrowding issues and quality of life issues."

McGreevy nominates Kushner

Charles Kushner, McGreevey's biggest campaign contributor, was nominated by him last year to head up the agency that oversees New York and New Jersey's airports, seaports, bridges, tunnels, and mass transit."

And owners of the World Trade Center. Bloomberg: Kushner was appointed to the board and was nominated as chairman.

BENJAMIN BRAFMAN
CNN on Kushner's indictment looked to Kushner's attorney,
Benjamin Brafman, for a quote. The charges were "baseless." What CNN didn't tell you was that Brafman is a celebrity defense lawyer with a lot of acquittals including a weapons and bribery case against Sean P. Diddy Combs. What CNN they didn't mention was his other famous cases including Michael Jackson (briefly) and the former mafia hit man Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano 1991.

ABC failed to mention either high profile clients in this interview but note that he was hired as an ABCNEWS legal consultant. Nor did they mention that he was Kushner's lawyer.

CNN, however, did note that "Kushner contributed to the campaigns of several prominent Democrats, including Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, according to FEC records."

STEAMY POTBOILER
The New York Post called Kushner "N.J. Governor Pal" in this July 14, 2004 story of how Kushner personally solicited a prostitute to compromise a potential witness. The witness? His brother-in-law. The encounter was filmed and the tape sent to the wife of the witness, who happens to be Kushner's sister, according to the Jerusalem Post. Kushner "also bundled more than $1 million in contributions to McGreevey over the years."
Sanctimoniously, the New Jersey Democratic State Committee decided to return $13,000 donated by Kushner to Governor "McGreevy's pet project" - New Jersey Stem Cell Institute.

Editorial from The Philadelphia Inquirer.