Senator Menendez his wife Nadine and the three co-defendants will appear in court for their arraignment tomorrow morning in Manhattan for more on what we can expect I'm joined by former assistant U.S attorney Chris Gramiccioni Chris thank you for joining me once again last time we spoke we were all still digesting this indictment set the scene for us if you can tomorrow we are going to see the senator and his wife the other three co-defendants arraigned what can we expect it's a pretty ministerial hearing the arraignment it's very brief there'll be an opportunity to read the charges and in virtually every instance defendants wave the reading and then they have to enter a plea in The Plea I suspect will be not guilty for all the defendants what is the biggest hurdle proving bribery and correct so in the last several years the Supreme Court has really narrowed what constitutes a corrupt corruption offense and the prosecutors basically have to prove corrupt intent they've got to be able to demonstrate that there is a corrupt bargain between the defendants and in a quid book they called a quid pro quo if in exchange for Senator Menendez alleged official action or influence in return he and his wife got things of value that's outlined pretty thoroughly in the indictment that is kind of the bright line difference between an administrative or ethical breach versus something that can be considered like a criminal bribe scheme and if this this eventually goes before a jury I mean the difference between the last time that Senator Menendez was indicted those direct lines weren't necessarily drawn yeah so now we have a very detailed very lengthy indictment that's been laid out but how does that play into what we may potentially see if this goes to trial or do you expect they'll cut some type of deal the the past corruption prosecution that resulted in a hung jury I I don't anticipate that would ever come into evidence for this current jury there's one limited way if uh in this case Senator Menendez would take the stand he could be cross-examined on past acts but really it's a limited limited opportunity and that'll be his constitutional right to decide as far as like the the case itself I think prosecutors are going to rely heavily on concealment evidence throughout the indictment they paint a picture of efforts to kind of Disguise or hide or conceal this behavior and that is usually a linchpin kind of the Cornerstone of trying to prove a corrupt bargain try to prove that men's Raya that requires a corrupt deal in order to convict someone of a of a criminal offense versus just the commission of like an ethical breach do you think that there are other items that we will still see come out audio recordings I'm thinking other types of recordings witness testimony I think so I mean I think that when I heard the U.S attorney announce that his press conference that their case was still ongoing and if anybody had any information to contact them I think that was kind of a siren Call for other people who might be Witnesses or maybe even be potential victims in a corruption scheme very quickly because I've seen such a range in terms of what the sentences could be for these charges is he facing potential jail time and if so how long would the prison sentence be well it's notable that there's three conspiracy counts charged there's not substantive offense charges and conspiracy carries up to five years I would suspect that any of the defendants would be subject to a custodial sentence I mean that remains a judge's decision but but under the U.S guidelines that there is a jail exposure that that's affiliated with the conviction on these counts wow um yeah there's going to be a lot to watch tomorrow and of course in the months to come Chris Gramiccioni thank you so much for coming in foreign attorney thanks for your time thank you [Music] [Music]