Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was at the White House on Thursday to meet with Jared Kushner about prison reform, amid reports that he’s on the list of possible replacements for fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
The White House declined to say if Christie met with President Trump about replacing Sessions, who resigned Wednesday at Trump’s request.
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to Trump, declined to name contenders for the attorney general job, but said several people are in contention.
“There are many people in contention for that position just because there are many qualified people who would like to do it,” Kellyanne Conway told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned on Wednesday after more than a year of public beratings from Trump.
Trump appointed Matthew Whitaker to be acting attorney general, and it is not clear when Trump intends to nominate a new candidate. Whitaker can serve in the position as acting attorney general for 210 days, according to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
Christie has praised special counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigation the attorney general would oversee.
“I’ve told [Trump] many times that there’s no way to make an investigation like this shorter, but there’s lots of ways to make it longer, and he’s executed on a number of those ways to make it longer,” Christie said at an event in May in Chicago, calling Mueller “an honest, hard-working guy.”
Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, works on criminal justice and prison reform efforts for the administration. Christie and Kushner have a relationship that goes back years when, as U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Christie prosecuted Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner.
But Christie and Trump have been friends since before the 2016 presidential campaign, and the former governor has expressed interest in becoming his attorney general. Christie was appointed to lead Trump’s presidential transition team, but he was fired soon afterward in what was seen as a power struggle with Kushner.
