Prosecutors on Thursday showed jurors at the trial of Sen. Bob Menendez several times that he researched the value of gold as he tried to help a New Jersey businessman who authorities say bribed him with gold and cash.
Evidence about the New Jersey Democrat’s online searches was prominently displayed to a New York jury as prosecutors reviewed the history of his text messages and Internet inquiries as he allegedly tried to help Fred Daibes, a prominent real estate developer who worked with him is on trial.
The evidence is considered crucial in the government’s attempt to prove that Menendez and his wife received gold bars, cash and a luxury car between 2018 and 2022 from three New Jersey businessmen who in return benefited from favors Menendez would have granted.
Menendez, Daibes and another businessman and co-defendant, Wael Hana, have pleaded not guilty. His wife, Nadine Menendez, will be tried at a later date and recovering from breast cancer surgery. She has also pleaded not guilty.
A third businessman pleaded guilty before the trial testified against the other suspects. The businessman, Jose Uribe, said he was trying to bribe Menendez by paying for a Mercedes-Benz convertible for Nadine Menendez. In return, he said he wanted the senator to use his influence to drop the criminal investigation into his business partners.
The gold bars found in the home Menendez shared with his wife in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, played a prominent role early in the trial when an FBI agent described a search in 2022 of the home where the senator moved into in 2020.
The search found gold bars worth more than $100,000 and more than $486,000 in cash, some of which were in the pockets of coats hanging in closets, in bags and in shoes and boots. A Mercedes-Benz was parked in the garage.
On Thursday, the subject of gold came up repeatedly as another FBI agent described internet searches Menendez conducted while researching the price of gold in April 2019, twice in May 2021, again in October 2021, twice in December 2021, once in January 2022 and again in March and May 2022.
Among the searches, Officer Paul Van Wie said, were instances in which Menendez examined the value of a gram, an ounce and a kilo of gold. The agent said a search of Menendez’s internet history since 2008 revealed that the senator had never searched for gold prices in that period until April 5, 2019.
Menendez’s lawyers have said that the gold bars found in the house belonged to his wife and so she left the senator in the dark about gifts she accepted when she was in financial trouble.
Prosecutors tried to prove Thursday through emails, text messages and the online searches for the price of gold that Menendez was interested in gold, as he allegedly claimed. tried to recommend a new federal prosecutor for New Jersey that could help Daibes obtain a favorable outcome in a criminal case against him.
The online searches also occurred as Menendez would have used his international influence to help Daibes secure a $95 million investment from a Qatari investment fund by taking actions beneficial to the Qatari government.
Daibes has been credited with building a series of luxury waterfront buildings known as the “Gold Coast” in the New Jersey town of Edgewater.
Prosecutors on Thursday showed the jury’s email and text message correspondence showing that Menendez had introduced Daibes to a member of Qatar’s royal family who was a director of the investment company and had also met with Qatari officials and made public statements stating he supported Qatar while the real estate deal was being negotiated. .
After the deal was signed in May 2022, Daibes gave Menendez at least one gold bar, prosecutors say.
During the 2022 search of Menendez’s home, FBI agents found two one-kilogram gold bars and nine one-ounce gold bars with serial numbers showing they had previously been in Daibes’ possession, along with about a dozen envelopes of cash containing tens of thousands of dollars in it. of dollars containing Daibes’ fingerprints or DNA, according to the evidence shown to jurors.
One of the one-pound gold bars was found in a resealable bag wrapped in a paper towel, an FBI agent testified early in the trial. In the same closet, the FBI discovered a safe containing loose cash, envelopes of cash, seven one-ounce gold bars and another one-kilogram gold bar, the agent said.
Menendez’s attorneys say the closet, which was locked, belonged to his wife and that he did not have a key to it.
According to evidence shown to the jury Thursday, in August 2021, Menendez used an encrypted messaging application to send Daibes the text of a press release praising the Qatari government, before texting Daibes: “You might want to send them to them . I’m about to release.”
When Menendez was indicted last fall, he held the powerful position of chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a position he relinquished after being indicted. He has resisted calls, including from prominent Democrats, to resign from the Senate and recently announced that he is running for re-election as an independent.
