New Jersey's senior U.S senator Bob Menendez is under investigation Again by the FBI and Department of Justice it's the second time in the last decade and this probe appears to be focused on whether Menendez and his wife accepted undisclosed gifts in exchange for political favors a spokesperson for the high-ranking senator today said Menendez is quote not distracted by politically motivated smear campaigns and has denied any wrongdoing reporters at the Bergen Record have been weaving together the tangled web of characters involved in this political mess Jean Rimbach and Kristie Cattafi join me now Jean Rimbach Kristie Cattafi thank you both for coming in to talk to me about your reporting Jean let me start with you because it's really this messy I'll call it a tangled web of folks who are involved in this probe some of whom we didn't know were necessarily connected to this Federal inquiry third now or rather than the second Federal probe for for the senator talk to me about some of the characters who have emerged as potential key players while the the characters that have emerged in this case are coming off of like three what looked like three investigative angles that prosecutors are following one involves a company that certifies halal meat that is run by an Egyptian immigrant um another has to do with a property sale in Edgewater where a portion of the property has been sold to a Qatari chic and um there's yet a third area of inquiry where the a bill to protect the Palisades cliffs has um that later died there's a whole group of people that are involved with that and yet all of this comes back to whether or not the senator and his wife accepted cash jewelry luxury car you tell me in a potentially an apartment in exchange for a political favor what types of favors are the FBI and the dog looking at well as the investigation looks to be really expansive but it's not 100 clear what favors they might be looking at we can only guess based on where the probe is going based on a bill that looks to have been stalled indefinitely based on a sale of property and based on this Egyptian immigrant rising to such a high level after as our story told will look to be him falling on really hard financial times yeah and yet his fortunes were reversed once he was introduced to the senator which let me just shift over to you Christy because you did some extensive reporting on the property in Edgewater that Gene mentioned which also involves a very uh big developer not just in New Jersey but really globally what is his role in this and what does this property have to do with Senator Menendez so developer Fred Davies owns this super fun property the Quanto Superfund Site and it spans from 115 to 145 River Road and it's something that's been in development for 25 years so now we have Senator Menendez in the middle here we have potentially his wife yes who has connections with both the developer and this owner of the Halal meat business how do they all sort of uh come together in this program sorry well it's actually kind of interesting how they all seem to have come together there's an Bergen County attorney named Ann Trinity goes by Andy aslanian and he appears to be the point of connection um with all of these people and the attorney is very close friends with Nadine Arslanian who is now Senator menendez's wife and both of them are Armenian the attorney and um Mrs Menendez and they know each other and he introduced the Egyptian immigrant to Mrs Menendez and I think one of the other things that is just connecting the dots is that Fred Davies was is under investigation he was he's we're waiting for his sentence and hearing for several years for several years for almost two years now it just got postponed to October and a lot of experts were just talking to no one could figure out why it keeps getting postponed his probation he already said instead of getting sentenced to 30 years up to 30 years in prison he they landed on a probation deal and he just the sentencing hearing has been delayed four or five times now the next scheduled hearings in October and a lot of the experts says that's not normal it's not typical um so they're all just everyone's just wondering normally when it's a probation deal you want to get it over with you want to serve your time it just leaves you open to a lot of liability something that may be a senior U.S senator could have some sway in of course that's what they're looking into okay well a lot more to report here we appreciate you both sharing it and we should also mention of course that Senator Menendez is complying with the investigation and has said that there's no wrongdoing there Jean, Kristie thank you both for coming in thank you thank you