Washington — In the eighth week of his bribery trial, attorneys for Sen. Bob Menendez are expected to call witnesses after the prosecutor let his case rest last week after testimonies from 30 witnesses.
The New Jersey Democrat and his wife Nadine Menendez — both who have pleaded not guilty — are accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold and other bribes in exchange for political favors.
Menendez’s attorneys indicated last week that the senator’s sister and his wife’s sister would be among the first witnesses to testify on his behalf.
It is unclear whether Menendez or the two businessmen on trial with him will testify in their own defense. The businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, have also pleaded not guilty.
The trial of Nadine Menendez was postponed until later this summer as she recovers from breast cancer surgery.
Over the past seven weeks, the senator’s lawyers have sought to undermine the credibility of government witnesses, seeking to cast doubt on how much Menendez knew about what prosecutors say was a vast conspiracy that began in 2018.
Menendez is accused of using his influence as then chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee to secretly benefit Egypt; pressuring a U.S. Department of Agriculture official to protect the halal certification monopoly Egypt granted to Hana; and interfering in criminal cases in New Jersey involving Daibes and another businessman Jose Uribe.
Uribe, a former insurance broker, pleaded guilty to trying to bribe the senator and was the government’s star witnessin which he testified that he bought a Mercedes-Benz convertible for Menendez’s wife in exchange for the senator’s “power and influence” to shut down investigations involving his business associates.
Uribe told jurors he had several conversations with Menendez about the investigations, but they never discussed the car or how it was paid for. He said he assumed the senator’s wife had kept him informed of the deal.
Prosecutors allege the senator used his wife as a go-between for the bribes.
But Menendez’s lawyers have insisted that Nadine Menendez kept him in the dark about her activities and told the jury that he did not have a key to her locked cabinet where gold bars and some of the cash were found in their Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home during an FBI search in June 2022. According to his lawyers, Menendez, who moved in with his wife, was also unaware that she was having financial problems.
Prosecutors argued that it is inaccurate to portray the senator and his wife as living separate lives. They presented evidence that Menendez regularly checked in on her location using the iPhone app “Find My Friends,” as well as text messages about Nadine Menendez running errands for the senator and doing laundry.
After jurors were dismissed for the day Thursday, prosecutors and defense attorneys debated in court over whether details about Nadine Menendez’s relationship with an ex-boyfriend could be used in court.
The senator’s lawyers said the relationship was abusive and that disclosing this to jurors would provide context to some of the evidence they have already seen. But the judge said he would limit what they can hear.
“There may be evidence that there was a physical safety issue with a friend,” U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein said, adding, “This is not going to be a soap opera.” Stein indicated that he would allow Menendez’s attorneys to establish that there was an ex-boyfriend and Nadine Menendez “was concerned about the ex-boyfriend, that was the reason they got this phone,” the one that Senator Menendez used to check her location. .
In May, Stein ruled that a psychiatrist who evaluated Menendez should not be allowed to testify about “two significant traumatic events” in his life that his lawyers say explain the hundreds of thousands of cash investigators found in his home. Stein said he would allow limited testimony from a certified public accountant about the senator’s financial records.
