The Nathan security billing and Giuliani client base stories dominated Giuliani's press coverage for much of a week and coincided with a significant drop in his national poll figures and a worsening of his fortunes in the first caucus and primary states. Combined with the Kerik developments, they associated an air of political-personal doubt around the candidate. "The Wall Street Journal" stated that "These are perilous times for Rudy Giuliani." In a lengthy interview on the nationally televised "Meet the Press", Giuliani defended the security detail decisions, saying they were warranted by threat assessments at the time, and defended his refusal to release a full Giuliani Partners client list, saying every client of significance had already been pointed out in the press. Within a month after the original Nathan report, an investigation of city records by "The New York Times" revealed that the billing of mayoral travel-related expenses to obscure city agencies had started two years before the Nathan visits began, and totaled a hundred times more than what was spent for the Nathan visits, thus strongly suggesting that the Nathan visits "had nothing to do with any accounting legerdemain." Nevertheless, the political damage had been done.