Underscored by new reporting from nbc news on how he single handedly blocked a bipartisan piece of legislation that would have tightened the rules around foreign influence and lobbying in washington. But perhaps more pressingly for the democrats is what Senator Menendez will do to the party as a whole in next years election. The democrats have been working for years to paint republicans as the ones tolerant of corruption, the ones who have locked the other way at wrong doing, the ones who are okay with their standard bearer being someone under indictment. The comparison of course is not apples to apples, but here is how Democratic RepDean Phillips of minnesota put it, saying, quote, if we aspire to be a party recognized for its Prioritization Of Ethics and the restoration of faith in government, we must collectively condemn and seek the resignation or removal of anyone whose Behavior Results in a federal indictment period. Joining us now, nbc news investigative Correspondent Tom Winter who was outside the courthouse for us. Nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian with that bipartisan piece of legislation that was blocked. Nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali with everything thats happening on the hill, and criminal defense attorney, and nbc news legal analyst, danny cevallos. Tom, walk us through menendezs arraignment today. Reporter very standard, he was about 10 feet in front of me, dark pinstripe suit, navy tie, sitting in the same defense rows a his wife who has also been charged in this case as you know. Basically the judge going through all the standard kind of provisions and parameters of what she would do. It was menendezs attorney, not menendez himself that entered his plea of not guilty. That happens sometimes. Thats allowed by the court. And then the bail package was pretty much already agreed to by both sides, and that was the same for all the other defendants that have been charged in this case, and appeared today. So no big surprises there. Menendez didnt really say anything. Here at court we asked him in the courtroom, a couple of us reporters, asked if he wanted to say anything. He didnt care to elaborate. Really only his public statements were made, basically statement or speech that he gave earlier this week in new jersey as well as a question from our colleague, ryan nobles. Thats all weve heard from the senator. As far as whats next, well be back or at least his legal team will be back in Court Next Week to talk about next steps leading up to trial, and then well have to see how this plays out. Very much an Ongoing Investigation underlining that. Reporting from our colleague Jonathan Dienst that there is now a Counter Intelligence investigation here trying to determine whether or not menendezs wife was in fact, kind of coopted by egyptian intelligence. Definitely had a role in some of the discussions over a contract thats alleged in some wrong doing thats alleged in this particular case as well as the statements that the senator made about the u. S. s presence in egypt according to the indictment, so that is very much underway. We know the u. S. Attorney said this investigation remains ongoing. Well have to see if there will be further charges. Theres no Tax Violations that are charged here. No financial crimes that are charged here. Based on what we saw from the indictment, i dont think its a long walk at all to ask questions and wonder if the charges should be coming, given the fact that the cash found in pockets, gold bars, typically things you would not report, considered portable wealth and something that the irs might take a look into to see whether or not that was reported accurately and could there be tax charges tied to that. Lets talk about whats happening on the hill. Four more senators today. 30 senators totally. You have a number of House Members as well. Heres jamal bowman, heres what he said aboutenendez. Its a horrible look for first and foremost. A bad lk for democrats. Also a bad look for congress, and a bad lor elected ofcials across the country. The almost general consensus for people who do not consistently engage in our democracy is that politics is corrupt. Politicians dont care about us. We vote them in office, and they do nothing for us. Thats the sentiment that we have been hearing a lot from lawmakers. Youre painting us all with a bad brush here and we dont want you to be a part of this. Notably, senator schumer, the majority leader has not called for menendezs resignation. Do we expect anything might change with that . And when is he going to further address this . One of the big inflection points, katy, is probably going to come tomorrow. We expect that Senator Menendez will address his Democratic Caucus colleagues at a lunch. Thats exactly what the majority leader Chuck Schumer told reporters just in the last few minutes here. During a Weekly Press Conference he was of course asked about the fact that all of those faces that you just put up on the screen, 30 members, more than half of Senate Democrats have called for their colleague to resign here in the wake of this indictment. In large part for all of the reasons that Congressman Bowman listed. The fact that this paints all over elected officials with the same brush of possible corruption. Schumer for his part is leaving this to menendez, saying that he thinks this alleged behavior fell short of the high bar that is expected for the ethics of a senator. But not going so far as to echo the calls from over half of his caucus to have menendez resign, and look, schumer is someone who has known bob menendez for many many years. They have served in this building as two members from the tristate area for many many terms now. Schumer, of course, the top democrat in the senate, but menendez, the head of a very powerful Foreign Relations committee. Of course hes relinquished that gavel for the moment, which is what he said the last time he was facing these kinds of investigations, but it is an open question at this point about if the pressure in this building will ever get to a point that menendez feels he has to resign. I will say yesterday as reporters chased him and asked him where his head was at on resignation, he seemed very intense and doubled down on the idea in his words that hes innocent. Why would he resign . Clearly being defiant, even in the face of more names adding their voice to the chorus that he should no longer serve in the building. He said hes going to beat the charges and will remain a senator afterwards. Ken, a lot of this has to do with his relationship with egypt, which makes this bipartisan piece of legislation that he single handedly blocked so interesting. Walk us through the basics on the egypt relationship and what happened with this legislation. The indictment accuses Senator Menendez of corrupting the senate Foreign Relations committee and his power to hold or Grant Military Aid To Egypt in exchange for bribes, and what we learned is that back in december 2020, there was a bipartisan push to strengthen the Foreign Agent registrations act. Thats the law that governs foreign influence. But its rarely enforced. It was widely felt theres a need for an update, particularly after the Russian Election interference scandal and the widespread understanding theres Chinese Foreign influence campaigns, trying to influence washington. So republicans and democrats got together on a bill that they wanted to move forward. Now, sometimes in the senate to get things on the floor, you need unanimous consent. And so senator grassley asked for unanimous consent, and he was prepared for the big to go forward for a vote. It had the support of mark warner, ranking democrat. Bob menendez stood up and blocked it. What he said at the time was he was blocking it because he thought the reforms should be better thought through. He agreed it needed to be strengthened. The bottom line is he blocked it, it wasnt past, and now we know that what the indictment says is right during that time, he was engaged in an elicit relationship with an egyptian american businessman. He was meeg with Egyptian Government officials allegedly providing them information. That businessman referred in Text Messages with an egyptian general to the senator as our man. So thats the kind of thing that really gets the attention of fbi Counter Intelligence investigators and raises questions about why he blocked the legislation. Lets play what he said on the floor about legislation. I agree with the senator that the past few years have demonstrated that changes are sorely needed. But they also demonstrate that the statute may need more than a few tweaks. Before we have determined exactly what the most needed reforms are, it seems shortsighted to provide additional Enforcement Fools before we have figured out what the regime should look like. So, danny, Senator Menendez, again, that was him talking about that piece of legislation that he blocked which would have made it harder for foreign influence in washington and lobbying. He does seem confident that hes going to be able to beat these charges. Hes sort of beaten these charges of corruption before. It was a hung jury. So not quite the same. Why does he think that he can do it . Is this case open and shut . Youre a defense attorney. Tell me what youd be argue sglg arguing. These are tough cases. There are two reasons he feels comfort, number one, a Supreme Court case from 2016 called mcdonald. Mcdonald narrowed the definition of an official act. Its one of the key elements in extortion and bribery cases that allegedly he received cash or other gifts and in return, the quid pro quo, he did some official act. And its true the Supreme Court narrowed the definition of what an official act is. In that case, they said, look, just setting up meetings and making phone calls thats something someone in cardiology might do. Thats something that doesnt meet the standards. At the time, in 2016, a lot of people including me thought this would hinder the federal governments hindrance the cases. Its not a good reason to feel confident. Reason number two, as you said, menendez has beaten these charges before, and dont get me wrong by any measure in federal court, menendez beating this case before was a resounding win, but keep in mind, he wasnt ever actually acquitted. The case was dismissed and some of the charges were thrown by the court. That gives you an idea that in federal court, is ugh to even get acquitted of these charges even when you have a complete victory like menendez did. His prior victory is a statistical anomaly. The vast majority of the time in Corruption Cases youre going to lose. Theyre easy to prove. You prove he has the cash and gifts and everything else, prove the official acts, let the jury draw the inference, and i think theyre tough to defend. I know its a speaking indictment. We have come to know what that means. There was a lot of detail in this indictment. Did anything in Parr Stand Out . Is it just the fact that he had gold bars that raises the red flag for you . The Southern District of new york is aware of the commandments of mcdonald. One of the cases was menendezs own. Presumably he knows the case law as well as anyone. You can see from this indictment that the Southern District knows what they have to allege, and they allege plenty of meetings and phone calls, which by themselves may not be enough. But they allege a lot more than that. If these allegations are true, this is not a close call on extortion and bribery. It is a pretty compelling case. Keep in mind what im loonging for for an extortion or bribery case is the gifts. They have alleged that, and the official acts. Weve talked about them today. They have to tie them together. They dont have to prove he carried out the act. Its just the gifts plus the agreement, even if he never kau carries out the act. Is there more they havent revealed that prosecutors have in their back pocket, and do you expect more charges . I expect theres a possibility of more charges. Specifically what jumped out at me as i was reading the charge, where the Foreign Agent relation charges. Now, the government may say, look, just as ken reported, these are sort of a gray area. Theyre not brought very often. The government wants a lay up. They dont want acquittals. Maybe theyre going with the charges they believe they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Theyre leaving that out knowing that menendez has the rare history of being a federal Criminal Defendant who has beaten extortion, bribery and related corruption charges. Danny cevallos, ken dilanian, tom winter, ali vitali, thank you very much. Coming up next, what exactly will happen if the government shuts down over the weekend. Do go anywhere. What youre going to feel when the lights go out. A new york judge has ruled that donald trump is a cheat. What that means for control over his name sake company and buildings like trump tower. And uaw leadership say they do not support him, but what about its members. Were back in 60 seconds. T its. Were back in 60 seconds the choice facing Congress Pretty straightforward. We can take the Standard Approach and fund the government for six weeks at the current rate of operations or we can shut the government down in exchange for a zero meaningful progress on policy. Shutting down the government isnt an effective way to make a point. Keeping it open is the only way to make a difference on the most important issues we are facing. Mcconnell speaking to Kevin Mccarthy. Congress the rest of today, tomorrow, friday, and all of saturday to pass a budget or at the very least a budget extension. That is four days. 81 hours to be exact before the government shuts down at midnight on saturday, and yet key House Republicans dont seem to be in a rush to figure it out joining us now is nbc News Business and data reporter brian cheung with what will happen if the government shuts down. And nbc news capitol hill correspondent, ali vitali. Are we any closer today than yesterday . Reporter at the commercial break, you said dont go anywhere. Im not going to be able to go anywhere for a while. We saw mccarthy be able to move on to four specific Spending Bills that are supposed to be a down payment of goodwill to hard liners within his conference who want to see bigger Spending Cuts and who may not want to vote for a continuing resolution. For mccarthys part, his plan at this point is to do that down payment of goodwill and move on to a continuing resolution that would effectively allow him to punt the ball for 30 or 45 days. And buy himself time to get it together on the appropriation spending packages. Thats a big order. There are several people who will never vote for a cr. That puts mccarthy in the tough position of having to potentially have his job being vacated looming over all of this, or he may have to look across the aisle or building to what the senate is trying to do, pass their own version of a continuing resolution. That has thorns in it as well. It includes things like ukraine aid, which is a nonstarter with several members of the House Republican conference. Each of the roads the leaders try to go down have substantial road blocks at the end of them. Its why theres not a ton of optimism that a shutdown can be avoided. Most aft leaders in the building, some republicans fine with a Government Shutdown. Senate republicans are in tandem with House Democrats saying a shutdown is in no ones interest. Mcconnell coming for Kevin Mccarthy trying to stress the fact that this is a political loser for him. It just may not matter. Brian, when the government shuts down, if the government shuts down at midnight. What happens . Lets talk about the economic impact. For that we have to look to the 2019 Government Shutdown, the last time this happened. At that time, 300,000 federal workers were furloughed and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the government lost 11 billion, 3 billion which was permanently lost. Then theres the concern about what we see at the airport. Even the tsa, for example, even at the irs, there was some worker no shows because even those that werent furloughed had to work without pay. Some aid im not going to bother showing up for work. Markets went up 10 during the 35 days that it lasted. We look at the individual impact of some of these communities. Of course the biggest area where this is going to impact things is in the d. C. Belt area. 500,000 federal workers in the area do work for the government. The work force employed by the government as a percentage of the overall employees. 51 in d. C. 4 and 5 to virginia and maryland. D. C. Says it lost 47 million in revenue in 2019, and other states outside of the beltway that are impacted, take a look at hawaii. The Work Force Employee by the federal government. 5. 3 . 7 in honolul