meanwhile EMB battled US senator Bob bendeez is still digging in his heels over a potential 2024 reelection bid that's despite calls from more than half of Senate democrats for the indicted senior senator to resign amid Federal bribery and Corruption charges alleging Menendez and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for political favors and a new investigation by the Attorney General's office into a fatal 2018 car crash by his wife naen which is facing fresh scrutiny for its connection to the indictment and whether law enforcement followed proper protocol after the crash Katie Sobko is a State House reporter for the Bergen Record and was part of the team that broke the story about the fatal accident she joins me now Katie thanks so much for joining me you know this was one line in that 39 page indictment that nine Menendez had been in a car crash and yet you and your team unfolded what is in and of itself an entire other Scandal talk to me about that well yeah we um obviously everyone everywhere did great reporting on the indictment itself and it took days and weeks to delve through the entire thing and during that time we had started hearing Rumblings in Bergen County that um things weren't quite as they seem in terms of what that car crash intend failed um so we heard what town it could have been in then it kind of got narrow to what year it could have been um and we did you know local boots on the ground to to reporting got the public records and and found out that it was um in it was actually a fatal car crash uh a man lost his life and it was just kind of glossed over or breeed past in the indictment and it was something that we felt needed to be shared yeah and the dash camera uh video that you all obtained uh was was very chilling uh and and very uh gripping to watch because of your reporting the Attorney General's office is now investigating whether or not the bagota police properly handled the case do we know anything about where that investigation stands well the Attorney General's office and and the governor's office don't comment on law enforcement operations don't comment on investigations so we aren't sure exactly the the breadth or the depth of what exactly they're investigating but we do know that they are looking into it looking into exactly what protocols were followed or won't weren't on that night and um we're we're hoping that that this materializes into to something a little more concrete and we we get the full story of what happened that night in Pagoda yeah well there are still gaps correct have you been able to fill in any of those pieces as far as the time gap between when uh the video starts uh and when the accident actually happened or any more details about the folks who were on the scene we are actively reporting on what more happened on the scene on what happened leading up to the crash and what happened afterwards we have a great team at the record that is still working uh day and night around the clock to to try and paint the full picture and also there were other law enforcement agencies that turned up the Bergen County Sheriff's Department the Bergen County prosecutor's office were on hand so it's not just bod we're trying to see exactly who all was there for how long and why yeah is there anything else Katie that right now as we sit here still stands out to you in the indictment as I mentioned this was one line you all took it and ran with it investigated it to its fullest are there any other items in there that to you are glaring and and may tell a deeper story I think that there are a lot of small details especially in the way that the um that naen communicated with the three businessmen that were also uh charged there we don't know a lot about that everyone knows who Senator Mendez is his background but there are still a lot of uh details that aren't known about his wife and the other three businessmen so I think over time the record and all of the other New Jersey papers and tri-state area Outlets are are going to keep looking into what exactly happened leading up to the indictment and who all the players are all right Katie Sobko is the State House reporter for North jersey.com in the Bergen Record Katie thanks so much thank [Music] [Music]