political staff. and, you know every politician has surrounding them their man or their woman their people. who s their political gate keeper. and those were the people with whom wildstein dealt regularly. bill stepien who like wildstein was kicked out after bridgegate but at the time all this was going on was sort of the go-to man for governor christie. mike duheine, there were phone records released which showed that mike duheine who is the strategist was talking on the phone with christie frequently and also with wildstein frequently. so christie might not have had wildstein s phone number on his cell phone as he told his lawyers, but there were certainly conversations going on in close proximity. we thought it was so interesting as we were going through the assignment today, we were looking at the statement that christie made in the epic press conference. he said i can t recall if i had a meeting with him in my office. the very sort of carefully
he also joined him at seven public events. wildstein had almost monthly meetings with bill stepien and the manager of christie s two campaigns as well as lunches and dinners with christie s top outside strategist mike duheine. and on the day after a news report revealed that wildstein was involved in the lane closures, his calendar had one 14-hour entry, trenton. we reached out to christie s office for comment. they did not get back to us. joining me now is andrea bernstein, the senior editor at wnyc. good to have you here. good evening. so you went through a lot to get this. so how did this happen? so we were we ve been aware that the u.s. attorney in new jersey has been investigating this going on now 15 months. and former prosecutors have told us that no public corruption