NEW YORK — Senator Bob Menendez decided not to testify himself in his defense against the federal corruption charges, despite discussing it “at length” with his attorneys.
Menendez (D-N.J.) told U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein on Wednesday afternoon that he would not testify, just before his team of attorneys concluded their defense.
Prosecutors who charged him last fall “failed” in their case, Menendez told reporters as he left a federal courthouse in Manhattan.
The senator, who is accused of accepting bribes to disrupt state and federal criminal trials and to help the Egyptian government obtain U.S. military aid, called five witnesses this week after the government spent more than two months trying to get people to testify.
Menendez, who was on trial for the second time, said it “makes no sense to me” to give prosecutors another chance to summarize their case against him while he is on the stand.
After a corruption case was thrown out in 2017, he gave a victory speech outside a federal courthouse in New Jersey explaining his decision not to testify then, citing at least one similar reason. He said his testimony would have given prosecutors the chance to “redo their entire baseless case in chief all over again.”
Earlier this week, during legal arguments before the judge without jurors present, Menendez’s attorney Adam Fee appeared to preview his team’s closing arguments.
“There is no direct evidence for the alleged plans,” Fee said. “It’s just the strength of the inferences.”
Prosecutors have spent the past two months laying out the basis for the conclusions they hope jurors will draw in convicting Menendez as a “profit-seeking senator.”
They found more than half a million dollars in cash during a search of the home and have linked Menendez and his wife to about a quarter of a million dollars in gold bars, much of which was also found in the home. Menendez’s wife, Nadine, has a health condition and is expected to be tried separately.
Prosecutors also have reams of text messages and emails, briefly timed phone calls and evidence of meetings the senator had, including at least one meeting with an Egyptian diplomat who was being monitored by the FBI and another meeting that one participant described as “dirty” once it ended.
But some evidence that prosecutors called “crucial” was withheld from jurors because of a form of immunity granted to members of Congress. In addition, Menendez’s defense team hopes jurors will discount the testimony of one of the government’s star witnesses, a man who pleaded guilty to bribing Menendez but has a criminal record of his own. They will also likely point to other witnesses who interacted with Menendez and who said they did not believe he pressured them during interactions that prosecutors say were part of the bribery scheme.
And what the jurors think of the senator’s wife, Nadine, hangs like a thread throughout the entire case.
Prosecutors say she acted as a mediator, while Menendez’s defense team argues the couple lived largely apart and there is evidence she conducted affairs behind his back.
Closing arguments are expected to begin on Monday.
