"I will not accept being defamed by the governor for something he knows I did not do," Schundler said in a statement released to reporters. "The governor called me a liar this week. That was the last straw. I have no choice now but to defend my name through this chronology of facts and the attached evidence."
The governor's office said Schundler continued to insist that he supplied certain information to the Race to the Top reviewers despite a videotape of the interview that appears to contradict his assertions.
Schundler called the accusation that he misled the governor to cover up a poor interview "utter nonsense."
In an Aug. 25 news conference, Christie accepted some blame for the state's narrowly missing out on $400 million in federal Race to the Top education funds. But the governor also blamed the Obama administration, saying New Jersey officials had provided information that was missing from the state's application to federal officials during an interview.
After Christie's news conference, the U.S. Department of Education released videos of the state's Race to the Top interview showing that New Jersey officials failed to provide the requested information.
Schundler said that before Christie's news conference, he told Christie and at least two other members of the administration, chief of staff Richard Bagger and communications director Maria Comella, that he had not given the federal officials the requested information during the interview. Schundler said that when he was asked by someone, possibly Bagger, before the news conference whether New Jersey met the criteria asked about, he said it had.
In his chronology, Schundler says he told Race to the Top reviewers that the state met their education-spending criteria. He said that part of the conversation, at the end of the interview, was not videotaped.
