the jury has begun deliberations in the Menendez trial determining whether or not the senior senator is guilty of the more than dozen counts of corruption and bribery charges it has been a long process to get here and the jury just receiving the case in the middle of this afternoon after hearing hours of instructions from the judge senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan has been covering the case since it began Brenda First tell us what happened in the courtroom today before the jury went into deliberations yeah hey Ren six men and Six Women uh started deliberating at 10 2 this afternoon in Bob menendez's bribery corruption trial now they've got a copy of the verdict form with 18 counts for three defendant and a computer that's loaded with evidence judge Sydney Stein told them that if they wanted he would even bring back into the courtroom the gold bars and cash for them to examine in person if they ask now this is a complex case and the judge spent the morning instructing the jury at one point he told them boy I'm getting tired here but he kept going and he wanted them to understand all of the legal details for example you can find someone guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery without finding them actually guilty of the bribery counts now all of the defendants in this case Menendez and the uh two co-defendants Jersey businessmen will Hana and Fred Davies have all pleaded not guilty and none of them however have taken the stand in their own defense Raven Brenda someone who hasn't taken the stand is the senator himself so but but while we haven't heard from the senator you have been observing him in and out of the courtroom throughout the trial so how has the senator reacted to the trial and what was his demeanor well remember ran he's been through this before I mean he beat his first corruption trial with a hung jury Menendez has been listening intently to all of the legal arguments he shook his head during the prosecution summation he's been walking the hallways up on the 23rd floor sometimes singing uh songs like Amazing Grace You'll Never Walk Alone he rarely comments to the media but when he does he's defiant uh he'll say he doesn't expect the jury will find him guilty that the government has not proved uh his their case Beyond a reasonable doubt now his family was with him here today his daughter Alicia and his older sister Kad Gonzalez she testified in this trial she said that her baby brother hoardes gold because that's a Cuban thing to distrust the banks Menendez looks calm Raven I saw him actually taking a selfie with a worker in the cafeteria during lunch today Brenda so what's next now well the judge told jurors that they could stay late today if they want wanted however most people think that they're going to go home especially with a case this complicated they're thinking we're going to be back here next week deliberations will continue he told the five alternates uh who uh sat in on all of of the uh presentations that he did not want to discharge them he wants to keep them around he told them they could go home but not to read anything and not to discuss the case just in in the event something happened and would have to replace one of the jurors you might think that that's being over cautious but actually that happened in another case here at the courthouse today where one of the jurors was replaced by an alternate Raven all right well now we just have to wait Brenda thank you yep thank you [Music]