The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Newark, alleges the city and the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency put "politics over principle" when they broke their contract with the developers, Kushner Companies and KABR Group, which intend to build a two-tower mixed-use development adjacent to the Journal Square PATH station. Jared Kushner, former CEO of Kushner Companies, is Trump's son-in-law and adviser.
The court action is the latest hiccup for the city's three-decade attempt to transform a plot of land near the Journal Square PATH station. It also represents a political headache for Mayor Steve Fulop, putting him on the opposite side of a legal battle with the president's in-laws, who claim he was currying favor with them privately while bashing them publicly in a "transparent" bid to court Democratic voters. A deputy mayor told the developers they should not ask for a tax break until after the mayor's November 2017 re-election, the lawsuit says.