Bill Baroni did it.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey now says former Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, once Gov. Chris Christie’s top staffer at the bi-state agency, hid from public view key records of meetings with United Airlines and its lobbyist, current Christie transportation commissioner Jamie Fox. Baroni was indicted last May for his role in the Bridgegate conspiracy.

The records, possible key details in a bribery investigation by the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, were deleted long before prosecutors began subpoenaing records concerning United Airlines.

If proven, current and former prosecutors say, hiding the meetings could bolster a federal case. “If you have concealment and cover-up it could be very valuable evidence to prove intent,” said one prosecutor who didn't want his name used because he's not authorized to speak on the case.

Baroni’s attorney, Mike Baldassare, called the Port Authority’s statement “profoundly wrong.”

At issue is whether United Airlines, in exchange for tens of millions of dollars in annual flight fee reductions, set up a special direct flight route from Newark Airport to Columbia, S.C. near the weekend home of David Samson, the former Port Authority chair and a close Christie confidante.

Records of four key meetings were removed from Bill Baroni’s calendar, which was made public in April, 2014, after a freedom of information request by the New York Times. WNYC only learned of the meetings because a subsequent document request, filed 14 months later under a new regime at the bi-state agency, turned up the documents.

The Port Authority initially declined to comment, citing the investigation. But after WNYC reported that the transportation agency had hidden the records, it issued a statement:

“In accordance with existing practice at the time with respect to Freedom of Information requests, the Port Authority allowed current and former employees or their attorneys the courtesy to redact matters of a personal nature from their calendars and this was done in the case of former Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni,” the statement read.

The statement added that current calendar requests are subject to “higher levels of scrutiny.”

The Port Authority's public statement is a stunning turn for an authority accustomed for decades to hiding almost everything about its internal functioning.

At the time the deletions were made, Baroni had resigned amid the Bridgegate scandal, but Samson was still chair of the Port Authority. Samson’s spokeswoman wouldn’t say whether Samson or a representative also reviewed the records before they were made public.

The hidden calendar entries included a September 13, 2011, dinner at Novita restaurant in Manhattan, attended by Samson, Baroni, United CEO Jeff Smisek, two United VP’s and Fox, then a United lobbyist. In addition, a Jan. 30 entry with Smisek was whited out, as were two meetings with Fox in the spring of 2013.

"Let this be crystal clear. Bill Baroni never requested the September 2011 dinner -- or any other United meeting -- be redacted from his schedule,” his attorney, Mike Baldassare said in a statement. “The Port Authority made those redactions. And it is profoundly wrong for the Port Authority to say otherwise."

But a source familiar with the Port Authority who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the investigations maintained Baroni's statement had been “carefully worded.”

The source said the dinner at Novita had been removed from Baroni’s calendar before the earlier document request – but that it existed in a separate folder on Baroni’s computer and was discovered by a technical specialist in response to WNYC’s request. Two of the other hidden meetings weren’t with United, they were with Fox – and a Fox spokesman says they were to discuss another client, Westfield Group, which owns retail stores at the World Trade Center.

But the second meeting with Fox occurred on June 13, the same day as a fund raiser for Gov. Christie’s re-election campaign by United Airlines at the posh Hotel Monaco in Chicago, near United’s headquarters. United raised close to $30,000 that night, the first such fundraiser it ever held for a New Jersey Governor.

Fox’s attorney, Robert Fettweiss, said Fox wasn’t involved in that event. "He never had a conversation with United, Gov. Christie, Samson or Baroni about the airline fundraising and never played any role in it,” Fettweiss said in a statement.

Samson’s spokeswoman, Karen Kessler, said Samson didn’t attend the fundraiser, but didn’t say if he’d accompanied Christie on the out-of-town trip, as he sometimes did.

Just six weeks after the fund raiser and the hidden meeting, Baroni met with Smisek at Vic and Anthony’s steakhouse – that meeting was on the earlier version of Baroni’s calendar. On August 23, Gov. Christie, Smisek, and Samson met, in Trenton.

Records show that just after Labor Day, Baroni and United began talks in earnest about the flight fee reductions. By November 13, they had a deal to lower the fees.

But it was never consummated, because of Bridgegate, and all the scrutiny it drew to the Port Authority.