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Kushner, 50, of Livingston, surrendered to FBI agents yesterday morning and was arraigned in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald J. Hedges in Newark district court in the afternoon.
According to court documents released yesterday, Kushner hired the two men to find a prostitute to seduce an unnamed close relative and videotape the call girl and his relative having sex.
When the two men failed to find a prostitute willing to cooperate with the sex for blackmail scheme, Kushner personally went to New York City to find a call girl willing to help, police said.
In December, the hooker posed as a distressed female and convinced Kushner’s relative to give her a ride to a Bridgewater motel where her car had broken down. Once at the motel the hooker seduced the man into a room where a camera was set up to videotape them having sex.
Kushner then had one of the men involved in the scheme mail the videotape and photographs of the close relative having sex with the hooker to the man’s wife who was also cooperating with federal investigators.
When the videotape arrived the couple turned it over to the authorities.
Kushner allegedly attempted to work the same scheme on a second rival who was cooperating with federal investigators, but that man declined the prostitute’s advances.
"Obstruction of a federal grand jury investigation will not be tolerated," said U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.
"The allegations in this complaint show a pattern of disregard for the law. The alleged conduct is repugnant to all those who respect the rule of law."
Kushner is charged with conspiracy to promote an interstate act of prostitution, retaliation against a cooperating witness and obstruction of justice.
If convicted, Kushner could face 25 years in federal prison and $750,000 in fines.
Kushner is the second McGreevey friend and fundraiser with expensive ties to the governor to be indicted in as many weeks.
Last week, David D’Amiano, a McGreevey childhood friend and fund-raiser, was named in a federal indictment alleging he brokered a deal with a "state official 1" to get a larger payoff for a Morris County farm. The indictment fingered "state official 1" for using the codeword "Machiavelli" to reassure a Morris County farmer that he was in on the scheme.
McGreevey has admitted to being the unnamed "state official 1" in the D’Amiano indictment, but denied any wrongdoing.
Yesterday, McGreevey was tight-lipped about the Kushner indictment in stark contrast to his reaction to D’Amiano’s indictment last week. The only mention of it came in a written statement from the governor’s director of communications.
"We are saddened to hear of the allegations. It would be inappropriate, however, to comment further on matters unrelated to this office," McGreevey’s director of communications Kathy Ellis said in a written statement distributed along press row yesterday afternoon.
Kushner is the chief benefactor of McGreevey’s gubernatorial bid in 2001, and has personally donated more than $369,000 since 1997.
Last year, McGreevey tried to name Kushner as head of the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, but Kushner was forced to resign after the federal probe became public.
Kushner was under investigation for possible tax fraud and other illegal campaign contributions.
Last month, Kushner was fined more than $508,000 by the Federal Election Commission to settle a federal investigation into more than $500,000 in donations by attaching the names of relatives and business associates without authorization on checks being donated to Democrat Party coffers.
