Speaker 1: Well, now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Lab of Brief,
Speaker 1: exploring legal issues in the news, and today Bloomberg Law
Speaker 1: host doom Grasso discussed the political corruption trial for New
Speaker 1: Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. She speaks with Robert Mints, a
Speaker 1: partner at mcarter and English, and Jeffrey Bellan, a professor
Speaker 1: at William and Mary Law School. Jeff, let's start with
Speaker 1: a brief outline of the case against Menendez. So the
Speaker 1: government has has to show that there was money exchanged
Speaker 1: for official acts here and so are things of value.
Speaker 1: And they've got a whole catalog of things of value
Speaker 1: that went from Dr Melligan to Senator Menendez. Highlights include
Speaker 1: like an expensive Paris hotel room, some trips to the
Speaker 1: Dominican Republic where the doctor had, I guess a nice villa. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then you know some of the eye catching ones
Speaker 1: are are very large, like effectively campaign contributions up to
Speaker 1: seven fifty thousand dollars. So that's all the money going
Speaker 1: to Senator Menendez and things of value. And then the
Speaker 1: government has a whole bunch of allegations of things that
Speaker 1: the senator did for Dr Melligan in that same time period,
Speaker 1: including intervening on his behalf in a medicare billing dispute,
Speaker 1: intervening on Dr Meligan's behalf in like a business deal
Speaker 1: having to do with the ports in the Dominican Republic,
Speaker 1: and then arranging to influence the visa application process to
Speaker 1: help Dr Meligan's girlfriends get some visas, and so the
Speaker 1: challenges connecting those things. But they certainly have a lot
Speaker 1: of allegations of gifts and official acts. Bob Menendez is
Speaker 1: prominent attorney. Abby Lowell said that acting out of friendship
Speaker 1: is not improper, it's not corrupt, and it's certainly not
Speaker 1: a crime. Tell us what the defense strategy is, Well,
Speaker 1: the defense is taking the position that the case is
Speaker 1: really not about what happened, but about why it happened,
Speaker 1: and so that means for the jury, this is all
Speaker 1: a question of intent, and what the jurors are really
Speaker 1: asked to do is get into the mind of both
Speaker 1: Center Menendez and Dr Meligan and explore this relationship and
Speaker 1: try to determine whether this was a true friendship at
Speaker 1: these gifts were simply given out of their affection for
Speaker 1: one another, or whether there was something more nefarious going on.
Speaker 1: Here whether there really was a quid pro crow relationship
Speaker 1: where this stream of benefits were bestowed upon Center Menendez,
Speaker 1: with the expectation by Dr Meligan that at some point
Speaker 1: in the future Center Menendez would intercede on his behalf
Speaker 1: to benefit him financially. As Robert Man's a partner, Ed
Speaker 1: McCarter in English, and Jeffrey Bellan, a professor at William
Speaker 1: and Mary Law School, speaking with Bloomberg Lahost jun Crosso.
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