"Charles Kushner had absolutely nothing to do with this," Mr. Brafman said. "He hasn't seen Golan in years."
Touro College now has 29 campuses, mostly in the New York area but also in California, Moscow and Israel. It was founded in 1970 in Midtown Manhattan by Dr. Bernard Lander, a former dean at Yeshiva University who wanted a secular-studies college aimed at a largely Jewish audience.
While its 16,000 student body is still heavily Jewish and heavily Orthodox, it also has more diverse campuses like one in East Harlem where most students are black or Hispanic.
In its effort to get approval of a charter, Touro was also represented by former Senator Robert G. Torricelli, who now works as a political consultant. Mr. McGreevey's advisers said that in recent months, Mr. Torricelli and his aides had been unsuccessfully trying to arrange meetings with the administration to push for the project.
Mr. Torricelli did not return calls seeking comment Monday, but his aide, Sean Jackson, told The Associated Press that they were not involved in Mr. Cipel's efforts.
"Neither Senator Torricelli nor myself have ever spoken or met with Mr. Cipel," he said.
Jason George and Robert Hanley contributed reporting for this article.
