Casino magnate Donald Trump was on the hook for $30 million in overdue taxes to the state of New Jersey until his friend Chris Christie took office as governor, when the dynamics changed.
New Jersey agreed to accept $5 million from Trump and his casinos after six years of legal wrangling, The New York Times reported.
Though settlements are common occurrences in cases like it, forgiving $25 million was an eye-catcher.
"You can't tell whether there's something problematic, but it's pretty striking that this one was written down so much," David Skeel, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, told the Times.
The Times reported the taxes went unpaid from 2002 until 2006 when Trump oversaw the company as chairman and then CEO.
The timeline of Trump's relationship with Christie, according to the Times:
- Trump met Christie in 2002;
- Christie was invited to Trump's third wedding in 2005;
- Trump was a guest at Christie's inauguration in 2010;
- The Trumps and Christies double-dated at a posh restaurant in March 2011
- The Trump-Jersey matter was settled in December 2011
The Times reported that Christie's name appeared on the bankruptcy cases during those years as representing the IRS in its claims against Trump; Christie was then the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, the Times reported.
However, a Christie spokesman told the Times the governor "had no supervisory role in pursuing the agency's claims."
A spokesman for the attorney general's office told the Times that the settlement was agreed to by the AG's office and the State Division of Taxation.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.