Ryan J. Reilly September 2, 2010, 11:44 AM

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s administration is firing back at his former Education Commissioner Bret Schundler, who said yesterday that he was defamed by the Governor.

Christie said Schundler was fired because he misled the governor about the events leading up to the state’s loss of a $400 million education grant. But a timeline released by Schundler yesterday made the case that he had been honest with Christie about the mistake, and told the Governor not to say at at news conference last week that Schundler had tried to submit additional information to correct the mistake.

Christie’s spokesman told The Star Ledger on Wednesday that the governor stands by his version of events.

“Once again, Mr. Schundler acknowledges that he told both the governor and the U.S Secretary of Education that he verbally confirmed for Race to The Top judges that New Jersey satisfied spending criteria on education for the period 2008-2009,” Press Secretary Michael Drewniak said in an e-mail. “However, video of the presentation revealed that this was not the case. This indisputable fact was the basis for Mr. Schundler’s dismissal, no matter how much he attempts to cloud the issue or redirect responsibility for his own conduct.”

Christie’s office told The Star Ledger that Schundler was parsing the e-mails and statements to his benefit.

In an e-mail to reporters with the chronology sent yesterday, Schundler said he held off on distributing his chronology of events because he didn’t want “the education agenda I support to be harmed by Governor Christie being weakened.”

But he said the Governor’s statement that he lied to him “forces me to defend myself.” Schundler asked not to be called for comment or interview.

“I am sick of this thing and will let the Governor have the last word,” Schundler wrote.

Bret Schundler, Chris Christie, New Jersey, Race to the Top