met with him and we really don't want to talk about this. it was very, very odd. this is how "the new york times" wrote it up at the time. quote, several weeks ago brien benchkowski, the head of the justice department's criminal division and lawyers from the division's fraud section met with mr. giuliani to discuss a bribery case in which he and the other attorneys were representing the defendants. that meeting took place before u.s. attorneys in manhattan publicly charged two giuliani associates, lev parnas and igor fruman, with breaking campaign finance laws and trying to unlawfully influence politicians. here was the statement the doj put out that sunday. quote, when mr. benchkowski and fraud section lawyers met with mr. giuliani, they were not aware of any investigation of mr. giuliani's associates in the southern district of new york. they won have met with him had they own. at the time nobody exactly knew what that meeting was or who this was facing bribery charges, who giuliani got into the justice department. nobody knew what that meeting was about, who that meeting was