NEWARK – Sen. Bob Menendez left federal court in good spirits late this afternoon, anticipating closing arguments in his corruption trial tomorrow like a confident football coach on the eve of the Super Bowl who knows there are still four risky quarters of the game left to play.

With measured assurance, Menendez repeated a version of his stock answer to questions, that he wants the truth to set him free.

“I’m ready,” Menendez told reporters. “I’m looking forward to closing arguments, and the opportunity for my attorneys to speak to the jury to help them to learn what truly happened.”

Though Menendez’s lead attorney Abbe Lowell has an encyclopedic knowledge of legal precedent, and Dr. Salomon Melgen’s lead counsel Kirk Ogrosky possesses down-to-earth charm, their closing arguments will not be all the jury will draw upon to reach Menendez’s hoped-for “not guilty” verdict. In fact, some of the case may have been won or lost today during the three-hour charge read aloud to the jury by Judge William Walls.

Defense attorneys began working on the charge before the trial started, and they along with the prosecution and Walls spent the last two days functioning as group editors for the document. The jury charge specifies how the jurors will interpret each of the 18 counts in the case, and what is required for a conviction or acquittal.

Some of the jury charge was generic, as when Walls defined reasonable doubt as a “quality of thought” that, were it “present in the serious personal affairs of your life,” could cause a reasonable person to rethink their decision.

The jury charge defined four separate “official acts” Menendez is alleged to have corruptly performed as a result of Melgen’s alleged bribes: securing visa applications for Melgen’s girlfriends, intervening in a Medicare overbilling case, attempting to get the State Department to settle a dispute between Melgen and the Dominican government over port security, and seeking to quash a rumored U.S. government donation of container security scanners.

But in language crafted in the wake of the Supreme Court decision reversing former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s corruption conviction, the jury charge leaves a clear pathway for a Menendez acquittal on bribery and conspiracy charges.

“A matter must be more specific than a broad policy issue,” read Walls, echoing a phrase Lowell repeatedly employed during the trial, “like economic development, national security or tax reform.”

Jurors must find that each act was “specific and focused,” yet don’t need to find Menendez actually did anything, only agreed to do so.

“In exchange for a thing of value, that would be illegal,” Walls said.

McDonnell’s case may have also had an impact on the charges related to campaign contributions. Now, bribery can only be proved with a quid pro quo – Latin for “this for that.”

“It is not bribery if you find the contribution was accepted for some unspecified, future action,” Walls read.

“Bribery is not proved if a gift is given or accepted out of friendship,” Walls continued, in another boon to the defense stratgey.

The charges continued with a definition of bribery which could reach far beyond Walls’ courtroom after Menendez’s case is over.

“It is not bribery to provide benefits to a public official in an attempt to curry favor or general good will,” Walls read. 

“It is not bribery if you find the defendant senator performed acts that benefitted the defendant Melgen, unless you find he agreed to do so in exchange for things of value,” Walls continued.

On the final count, that Menendez falsified his Senate financial disclosure form to omit private jet flights, stays at Melgen’s Dominican home and a Paris luxury hotel room provided by Melgen, jurors must find that Menendez “knowingly” attempted to defraud the government and his own staff.

Earlier in the day, the defense had tried to insert an instruction that if jurors could not know beyond a reasonable doubt whether Menendez was in New Jersey when he signed the forms, they must acquit on the falsfication charge. Walls rejected that attempted edit which relied on the venue for the case as federal court in New Jersey.

Though Walls’ rapport and pull with the jury is obvious during court testimony, he was not able to convince them to meet on Friday. In all likelihood, closings will take the entire day Thursday and could bleed into Monday. Only then will jurors begin their deliberations.

At the outset of reading the jury charge, Walls sought to remove himself from the jury’s thoughts.

“They do not, in fact, reflect my feelings,” Walls said. “In fact, my feelings are immaterial.”

Soon, he will hand them the wheel and the 12 men and women on the jury will be the ones driving Sen. Bob Menendez’s trial, and potentially the rest of his political career.