MY JURY TRIAL WITH ANDRE: Senator Menendez Juror Asks Trial Judge: ‘What Is a Senator?’

On their first full day of jury deliberations at the bribery trial of Senator Robert Menendez, a juror asked the judge a basic question: What is a senator?

U.S. District Judge William Walls declined to answer the question, and he refused that juror’s request for a transcript of Monday’s closing argument by Menendez’s attorney, Abbe Lowell.

It’s probably for the best that the judge refused to answer, because, really, can we ever truly know? Or as Wallace Shawn said to fellow actor Andre Gregory in Louis Malle’s 1981 film, My Dinner with Andre:

Tell me, why do we require a trip to Mount Everest in order to be able to perceive one moment of reality? I mean… I mean, is Mount Everest more “real” than New York? I mean, isn’t New York “real”? I mean, you see, I think if you could become fully aware of what existed in the cigar store next door to this restaurant, I think it would just blow your brains out! I mean… I mean, isn’t there just as much “reality” to be perceived in the cigar store as there is on Mount Everest?

Or on jury pools these days, apparently.