but today, bill stepien says th that's not true.one day before on december 12, he told the governor he had heard about the plan from david wildstein. in a statement, stepien's attorney said, quote, last december 12, mr. stepien candidly informed the governor of his advanced knowledge of that plan and of his proper suggestion that mr. wildstein vet that plan with the powers that be in trenton. this claim, coming from one of christie's closest allies, directly contradicts what the governor said the very next day. what happens next? joining me now is criminal defense attorney brian weiss who has experience with political corruption cases. thanks for being here, brian. >> good to see you, rev. >> there's a lot of names and characters in this bridgegate scandal, but nobody more central than bill stepien. and nobody closer to the governor. and now he's directly contributing christie it appears. what's your take on this, brian? >> well, i think what you need to understand, this is just no ordinary civil service chuckle head. this was the g

and he had previously mentioned bill stepien and bridget kelly. and now he throws in, and i told the governor about this. >> and did you believe him when he told you that ms. kelly and mr. stepien knew about it? this whole issue of traffic study lane closures? >> i would say that later and specifically at the dinner i became more concerned because he seemed to be offering up people. and i couldn't understand why. >> drewniak has already spoken so investigator fps. today was our first window into what he knows and what he may have told them. the co-chairs of the committee investigating the bridge closures. thank you very much. assembly woman -- senator weinberg, what did you know about this. you've been sitting through this the whole day. what did you learn? >> we certainly learned that the governor's office, senior staff were given much information, mr. drewniak himself spoke to the governor's chief counsel sometime in november, well before the december press conference. he spoke to the governor's chief counsel, apparently, according to mr. drewni

does that include stepien.ying that's a straight up lie. >> that time line got more complicated because christie's press secretary testified that they had a conversation on the 5th of december where the spokesman told the governor, bill stepien and bridget kelly might have a role in this and christie said apparently if we believe him, christie told druniak, i've been wondering if bill is involved in this. >> there's a famous moment in his press conference when he said i was reading my ipad and that was the first time i heard of this. he gave a three-hour thing. he was out there for a long time. this is what rudy giuliani said about it. take a listen. >> if for some reason it's not true, the man has put his political career completely at risk. if it turns out that there's some evidence that he knew about it, he's taken the complete risk that his political career is over. >> we don't have a smoking gun that he knew about it and lied in that press conference but we have increasing circumstantial evidence of person

he worked with stepien. he knew wildstein. talking about the dinner that they had.ficant about this is that it's bringing the circle a little bit tighter, closer to the governor. we know that there was some sort of conversation between wildstein and the governor on september 11, and now we're hearing that, you know, that drewniak and the governor had a conversation about the din we are wildstein where all this came up and the governor is being pulled in. what i find fascinating about this, there's so many people involved, so many conversations that were have, and so many avenues for plausible denyability, until we get another e-mail where this smoking gun e-mail like bridget ann kelly, time for traffic problems in ft. lee, that it's going to be, i think, almost impossible to tie this directly to the gor nor. you know, wildstein is somebody who made it clear to the feds that, you know, basically you give me immunity, then i can lead you down the right path. but until that happens -- >> let me -- let me go to you and lean on your experience as a federal prosecutor. if

but the point heather made before that bridget kelly and bill stepien were apparently supposed to behis. christie was apparently supposed to be aware of this. all of this was contradicted by christie at that press conference where he joked about moving the traffic cones. >> yeah. let me -- i want to jump in there because that's the thing, whether you remember iran-contra or the wolf of wall street, ten people testifying, i don't remember, i don't remember, at a certain point politically that can become a problem. let me play some more of the exchange of the governor about drewniak's testimony. >> he said he spoke to you after having dinner with david wildstein on december 4th. on the 5th he claimed that they knew about the lane closures. what he testified was your response when he talked to you about that was, quote, i always wondered if stepien knew more about this. was that what you said to him? >> i don't remember. >> okay. >> i don't remember. i have very little recollection of that conversation because it wasn't like mike coming into my office. if you'll recall, it was me walkin

. >> let's go to the logical conclusion it's bill stepien. but then he's now the campaign manager who's in charge of getting those mayors to endorse the governor. he's the guy, he's the kingpin. he reports to the governor. what do we make of all this? >> i think that map is really important. in understanding how the new jersey state house functions. it's clear that they share information in that building on need-to-know basis. bridget kelly hadn't been in that job long enough to become someone who's truly a member of that trusted inner circle in the waybill stepien was. you could tell the way christina renna discussed this today, there's a sense that just on the day to day interactions people have, that people above her, too, are being told information on a need to know basis. and that comment that bridget kelly made to her, trust no one, something out of the "the x files." don't trust anyone here. boy does that speak ill of how that office is run. >> here we have a ceremonial office, the only thing separating it. the governor is on the left

the former ranger guy brandon right there, lowers his shoulder, blind sides stepien at the blue line.w minutes. that leads to this. players throwing elbows. fast-forward now to the third period. >> rebound, they score! it is briere at the net and it is 2-1 in favor of montreal. >> you heard it, rangers down one goal. under a minute left in the third period. and then this. >> played along by girouard, a minute to go. he drew it. score! >> two minutes into overtime, the canadiens get that winning goal. rangers lead the series 2-1. they next meet on sunday. >>> 50 u.s. senators urging nfl commissioner roger goodell to force the washington redskins to change their name. they claim the name redskins is a racial slur. they say the nfl should follow the nba's example of cracking down on racial injustice. >>> in baseball, toronto's mark buehrle won his major league leading eighth game. he got some early help from teammates melky cabrera and jose batista, back to back jacks on consecutive pitches. the jays take the red sox 7-2. >>> uconn men's head coach ted ollie fresh off his championship se

he told him bill stepien and bridget kellie had knowledge.me of that to chris christie at some point in the next week. oak, michael drewniak testifying before your committee on tuesday, what do you want to ask him? >> well, i think has some very important links here. he is the governor's press secretary, but he became quite involved in this. first of all, he said he was a personal friend of both wildstein and baroni. he was spoken to by the governor's counsel after some of this began because he obviously had some important information. so he isn't so much being questioned as a member of the governor's office, i feel, but as somebody who began to get very involved with this port authority business. >> so, brian, what is the expectation, by the way? he's going to show up. do we know he's going to answer questions? >> yes. he will answer questions. i think that especially based on what we saw with renna's performance. and she actually had a very polished performance. there was no question about it. i don't know if she was coached per se, but she

was it david wildstein, bill stepien, the governor? it also leads the way to figure out, as kendall said, we now have a road map to figure out who the architect was. and we're not talking about a broad universe of people. we're talking about a very small group of people. and so now what we have after this testimony is a direct contradiction to the conclusions of that so-called exonerating report done by gibson dunn. >> now, during the hearing today, kendall, one lawmaker said that he dealt with kelly, there was always a chain of command. then today's testimony also focused on the e-mail. on september 12, the third day of the lane closings, that's when renna told her boss, br bridget kelly that ft. lee mayor mark sokolich was, quote, extremely upset about the reduction of lanes from three to one. to which bridget kelly responded good. lawmakers wanted to know why renna didn't go to an ethics office when kelly later asked her to delete that e-mail. listen to this. >> i didn't think it rose to a level of having to go to an ethics officer