The landlord-tenant war between the Port Authority and World Trade Center leaser Larry Silverstein just keeps getting uglier. On March 30, PA chief Anthony Coscia privately accused Silverstein’s camp of harming ongoing negotiations by leaking untrue stories to the Post, a source says. One said that New Jersey officials were holding up ground-zero talks as a way to force New York officials into supporting a new commuter tunnel under the Hudson. “Silverstein’s people made things harder by leaking that false story, because it puts [Jon] Corzine in a tough position,” a PA insider says. “The tunnel isn’t part of this deal. Now Corzine has to take a harder line, otherwise he won’t look like he delivered enough.” Coscia also thought that a letter that ran in the Post—which, like Silverstein, is repped by Rubenstein Communications—from Anthony Weiner and other members of the state congressional delegation protesting Corzine’s ground-zero/tunnel link was a Rubenstein production. Silverstein rep Bud Perrone said, “No one from the Silverstein camp had any sit-down closed-door meetings with anyone from New Jersey last week,” and denied orchestrating the tunnel stories or the letter.

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Greg Sargent
• Table of Contents: Apr 17, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!