embattled Senator Bob Mendez is seeking multiple delays in his corruption trial his legal team sent a letter today to the New York Court where his case is being heard asking for a two-month delay for the start of the trial from May until July of next year that is notably after the 2024 Democratic primary Senator bendeez is also asking for a more immediate delay pushing off the pre-trial motion scheduled for early next month by one week you'll recall Menendez and his wife naen are accused of taking Cash Gold Bars and a mercedesbenz in exchange for political influence now in his letter Menendez and his legal team cite the 15 million pages of documents produced by the prosecution as one major reason for requesting the delay those pages include text messages emails search warrants and more which his lawyers argue is the equivalent to reviewing the 26 million book collection in the Library of Congress his legal team also citing the trials complex and unprecedented noting the government has never prosecuted a sitting Senator on foreign agent charges now lawyers on top of the prosecution's evidence say they'll also need time to conduct their own investigation which may include traveling to Egypt to interview potential witnesses as of now the Senator's trial is set for May 6th joining me now to discuss this latest development is Chris Gramiccioni former assistant us attorney in New Jersey Chris thanks so much for being here with us tonight want to just start with you know we we see these um menendez's attorneys asking for a two-month delay how unusual is that just off the off the bat to ask for that amount of time I I think it's extremely common especially in complex White Collar cases like this where there's not just a lot of Discovery overall a lot of classified information uh it's really really common and I don't think the ask for two months is really all that unreasonable let's talk about the amount of evidence that the prosecution produced 15 million Pages what goes goes into analyzing that content kind of prioritizing where the prosecution is going to go what goes into it how much time does that take well you know he's got a defense team and all the defendants they want to look at all that Discovery because it's in response to a an obligation the government has to turn that evidence over and the government doesn't have to identify what they consider is inculpatory or what's going to be used at trial so you almost have to step into the shoes of the prosecutor to figure out what would you present if you were the prosecutor and then you also at the same time are looking through things that are helpful or corroborate your case anything that's potentially exculpatory anything that helps negate any of the elements the government has to prove to meet their burden so you're almost performing two functions as you come through all of that but most importantly you just don't want to be surprised at trial if there's something that's presented you just want to be intimately familiar with all the materials that the government has at their disposal and the defense team here makes the case that look the prosecution has had four years to build this case they only have a matter of of months and they say they need to conduct their own investigation some of that includes foreign players right what would or what could their investigation look like well it depends on what they're looking for is any information that negates the Criminal Intent that's necessary to prove the charges filed against them um another big piece of their case as you saw in the filing of the correspondence they submitted to the court is they're going to hang their hat on the speech and debate clause they're going to argue that a lot of this is protected and if if some of the if the if the court agrees that speech and debate clause protects some of the the Senator's Communications a lot of the evidence the government may consider using a trial could fall out really change the face of it um but that's a it's a great point because they have been looking at this for a number of years it's supposed to be tried in May 2024 and you know the first time that Senator Mendez and his team finds out about it is is most likely upon Return of the indictment it's not like the government gives a heads up that this is what we're this is what we're investigating necessarily they might get a Target letter at best but nothing more than that so it's fair to allow the defense to to do their jobs and you know the defendant has a constitutional right to defend himself is is all coming from the obligation to try a case within 70 days of a return of an indictment under the Speedy Trial Act but there's a number of exceptions to that and one of them is if the the the judge finds that the ends of Justice were satisfied by allowing a brief continuance of the matter and that's where you find yourself here don't think there's anything reasonable yeah Menendez has said and his lawyers now argue this is not an open and shut case they say there there's no precedent right now for the feds to try a sitting Senator on this foreign agent charge how difficult do you believe given what we know what evidence exists at the moment will it be for the prosecution to make this case well if if you believe what what's alleged in the indictment uh they intentionally drafted a really lengthy called a speaking indictment with a lot of detail and they do that because what they have to demonstrate is corrupt intent that the the senator and the defendants in this case conspired to corruptly steer things of value to the senator in return for his official influence on certain matters to include National Security but they're going to spin that and they're going to say look um this has nothing to do with my obligation as a senator I was on the foreign arms arms Relations Committee like there is no evidence of corrupt intent Chris Gramiccioni great Insight thank you so much sure thank you have a great Hol and look forward to chatting with youall again