Sen. Bob Menendez speaks after being convicted on all charges in corruption trial
Sen. Bob Menendez and his attorney said they would appeal the guilty verdict jurors returned in his federal corruption trial Tuesday. Menendez was convicted on all charges in the case, in which he was accused of taking bribes including cash and gold bars. Following Menendez's comments, CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson provided analysis on the verdict.
Transcript
00:00No, not it.
00:01It wasn't me.
00:02It was actually my client.
00:03I have to jump in with great respect to you and your expertise.
00:04I have to jump in because the senator is now live, and we want to bring him on the stream.
00:07Thank you so much.
00:08Let's go to the senator right now.
00:09I have never violated my public oath.
00:12I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country.
00:16I have never, ever been a foreign agent, and the decision rendered by the jury today would
00:23put at risk every member of the United States Senate in terms of what they think a foreign
00:28agent would be.
00:30I'm on my attorney.
00:31Do you want to say something, and then I'll keep going?
00:34Afternoon.
00:35We were surprised and disappointed with the jury's verdict.
00:39We disagree with it, and we believe today, as we have since day one in Bob's innocence,
00:47there are grave appellate problems with this case and with this verdict, and we're going
00:54to pursue all appellate avenues aggressively, and we do expect he will be vindicated.
01:02Thank you.
01:03Senator.
01:04Senator.
01:05Senator.
01:06Senator.
01:07All right.
01:08So we have the opportunity to go back to Jessica.
01:09Jessica, I owe you a New York pizza for having to interrupt you, but we did want to let our
01:12viewers hear what the senator had to say.
01:16His attorney just saying there were grave appellate problems with this, and they will
01:19appeal.
01:20What could those be, and what kind of teeth could an appeal have, if anything?
01:25So I think it's worth mentioning that this is what almost every convicted defendant says.
01:31It's not to take anything away from potential avenues here, but it's very—we're hard-pressed
01:38to think of a defendant who says, no, that's the jury's verdict, and so I won't appeal.
01:44And I will also say that the criminal justice system really tends to favor finality.
01:49So an appellate process would not be, let's have another bite at the apple.
01:53It would have to be that there's some sort of error in the trial, like a jury instruction
01:58or evidence that was presented to the jury that should not have been there, or testimony
02:03that presented such a problem that it was not harmless error, but reversible error,
02:09so that you have to go to an appellate court and say, do something about this case.
02:15And I'm sure there are places where Senator Menendez will say the jury was improperly
02:21instructed or they should not have received this particular piece of evidence.
02:26But without putting my thumb too much on the scale, I will say there's a lot of evidence
02:33here.
02:34The prosecution told a solid theory of the case.
02:37And I don't think we should be holding our breath for a reversal on appeal.
02:41OK.
02:42So let's talk about timeline.
02:44If I'm understanding correctly, sentencing is set for October 29.
02:47How soon would they have to file that appeal and start fighting?
02:51So oftentimes you would wait for the sentencing and then you would file an appeal.
02:57There are situations where the trial court judge can decide to stay the sentence pending
03:03the appeal.
03:05Often that's not what happens.
03:06Often what happens is that there is a sentence, it is imposed, and the appellate process will
03:12play out while that person is, if there is incarceration, while that person is incarcerated.
03:18In this case, we know that some of the most serious charges carry up to two decades in
03:23prison.
03:25And so Senator Menendez could be facing significant jail time.
03:28You heard in that press conference that the Department of Justice did not respond when
03:34they said, are you going to seek the maximum?
03:36My guess is that they don't seek the maximum because this is a first-time offense, but
03:42that there will be a request in the sentencing memorandum for significant time.
03:47Because let's remember, there's a reason you and I are talking about this case.
03:51If we're talking about a senator who a jury has found abused his position of public trust
03:56for private gain, you want to not just punish the senator, but you want to make sure that
04:00you are sending a message to the rest of the country that this is not acceptable in this
04:04country.
04:05Jessica Levinson, breaking it down, making it so that we can understand this.
04:09You used the term a bite of the apple.
04:11You are helping us to really understand everything and take a bite out of this case.
04:15We appreciate you so much.