the gold bars and cash are just the first pieces of evidence as you heard to be presented in a trial expected to last seven weeks as prosecutors try to prove nen Menendez was the goete for the politically powerful Senator acting as a conduit for bribes and messages while the defense argues Menendez was kept in the dark about his wife's financial troubles and the source of her income so how's the case stacking up so far I'm joined by former Federal prosecutor Chris gion Chris so good to see you thanks for coming back on the show uh you predicted it and you said that if you were Prosecuting this case you'd want to have those gold bars in the courtroom and they were today what do you think the impact is having the jury pool pass these gold bars around uh the impact is just to make it clear right out of the box this is the physical evidence that it we're going to prove that was the subject of a bribe scheme and and um it's pretty powerful to have the jury be able to handle it and visibly see it and you know pass it around like you mentioned and so you know the prosecution is opening with a mandate because what without they can't say it they can't say it outright but what they want the jury to think is nobody has this kind of cash and gold bars stored throughout their homes and and and they want to make it really really extraordinary and unusual which it sounds like they have so I want to ask ask you about the government's ability to really show a quidd proquo because we heard from the defense attorneys for whale Hanah and for Fred Davies who said all of these items whether it be the car the money the gold bars they were given to naen Menendez not directly or even indirectly to Bob Menendez so how difficult is this going to be for them to prove well that that was a defense strategy that I think we collectively anticipated it's really easy to blame the person in the empty chair who's not at the trial table at the time which is Mrs Menendez right um but the government's going to have to make that connection and the way that they do that is to show how involved Senator Menendez was through the text Communications uh the emails and uh eventually the cooperating defendant who I'm sure will testify at some point towards the government the end of the government's case and cheat and as you mentioned Jose ybe that that Witness Who's the codefendant who had uh pled guilty will be key there but they're really making this a case about relationships are they not I mean they've said listen naen knew these folks for years they've always exchanged expensive gifts um Bob was in the dark and he didn't even know that she had gold bars stashed away in her closet with her clothes and other jewelry how strong of a defense is that I I think and this is my personal opinion again I don't I can't get into the minds of the members of the jury but I think it's a lot that has to be that really everything has to line up perfectly for you to believe the defense and what they're arguing that that naen did this all on her own unbeknownst to the senator um and at the same time he just happened to be taking all of this official action that benefited these defendants but it one thing had nothing to do with the other ultimately I suspect the government is going to seek what's called a deliberate ignorance instruction where the jury among other things in determining whether that quid proquo that knowing and corrupt intent is established they can they can be instructed that if a defendant deliberately tried to Blind himself and basically deliberately tried to stick his head in the sand and avoid all of this while knowing it's ongoing that's sufficient in order to prove knowing and corrupt intent so it feels like that's kind of the way the case is going and dancing around some of these things whether the jury buys it or not it's a lot that has to really line up perfectly for for them to be able to you know convince the jury that that the government didn't meet its burden Chris gion for us Chris so good to have your Insight on this hey likewise good speaking with you have a good one [Music]