Gov. Chris Christie turns up in pages of new Trump book

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has turned up in the newly released book about President Donald Trump.

Trump had tried to halt publication of Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House." His spokesman calls Wolff "a guy who made up a lot of stories to try and sell books."

MORE: President Trump blasts former chief strategist Steve Bannon after new book

The author writes that Trump would have stayed out of the presidential race if his fellow Republican, also an early candidate, had not gotten entangled in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal. The closing was found to have been an act of political retribution by Christie associates. Two were sentenced to prison.

According to the book, Trump viewed the lane-closing as "just New Jersey hardball."

Wolff writes that it had pained Trump not to make Christie his running mate.