christie's name was no longer on that list and he wasn't fired. a clear link between the pressure to meddle in politics and the leak about the menendez investigation has never been established. christie has steadfastly maintained that politics had nothing to do with his actions. but it's an episode that veteran watchers of new jersey politics remember and that they are thinking about now as news of another investigation of menendez begins to emerge and it's an episode politics watchers are thinking back to as a story that received little attention just a few months ago suddenly getting a second look from the press and the public. this is the story of a man named bennett barland who for 16 years held the position of county prosecutor in new jersey, a quiet, almost bucolic swath of the western part of the state near the delaware river, one of the more republican counties in the state. it was big news in 2010 when he intighted the republican sheriff, deborah trout, and two of her deputy sheriffs.