One morning in June of 2024, during the trial of Bob Menendez, I was sitting in the hallway

finishing a cup of coffee outside the courtroom. There was only one of the person there,

standing next to the bench, looking out at the spectacular Manhattan view from the 23rd

floor, Bob Menendez. He was singing, and it was killing me that I couldn't record it.

In that courthouse, you have no phones. Nobody has recording devices. So they developed this sort

of cocoon-like space where the defendants, the reporters, the lawyers, we were all kind of existing together for nine weeks.

This is Tracy Tully. She's a reporter for the New York Times, and she was in court almost every day.

He would sing during breaks in court, sometimes in the courtroom, often outside in that vestibule that you described.

And I remember riding down an elevator with the crowd of people at one point,

and one of the lawyers said, I think it's a form of prayer.

This is Dead End, the rise and fall of Goldbar Bob Menendez.

Over the course of three episodes, we're going to tell you about the epic collapse of New Jersey's senior senator.

He was convicted of a bribery scheme involving a monopoly on halal meat exports to Egypt and helping that country obtain U.S. military aid.

We'll dig into the details and try to solve a mystery.

How could a successful politician at the peak of his power do something that ultimately ruined him.

Bob Menendez grew up in Union City.

His parents had come from Cuba.

His father was a carpenter and a gambler,

and his mother a factory seamstress.

He's often told the story about how he qualified for an honors program when he was a senior in high school, but he couldn't afford the books.

And I couldn't understand for the life of me in a public high school

that I'd be barred from being in the honors program.

...