New Jersey’s chief law enforcement officer and top aide looked at each other after leaving a meeting with Sen. Bob Menendez in 2019.
“Whoa, that was disgusting,” the aide told then-New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.
That’s how Grewal on Thursday recalled a meeting in September 2019 that prosecutors said was Menendez’s attempt to disrupt the agency’s work in exchange for bribes. The testimony was among the liveliest yet in Menendez’s ongoing corruption trial, offering a behind-the-scenes account of a senator who appeared to exert his influence with one of the state’s most powerful officials.
Prosecutors allege that several men bribed Menendez and his wife in exchange for a series of actions, including Menendez’s attempts to intervene in a state criminal case and investigation.
One of the men accused of bribing the Menendezes, Jose Uribe, has pleaded guilty and is also expected to testify Friday about his interactions with the senator.
Grewal testified about a pair of interactions in 2019 that prosecutors say resulted from Uribe’s bribes, which were allegedly intended to help Uribe’s associates evade scrutiny and punishment by the attorney general’s office.
Menendez’s attorney, Avi Weitzman, questioned Grewal about his memory. In initial preliminary investigations with federal prosecutors about the interactions with Menendez, Grewal initially did not remember a previous phone call he had with Menendez in January 2019.
But on the witness stand, Grewal had vivid memories of how the call came about and is one of the most credible witnesses a prosecutor can hope to have on the stand. In addition to being a former attorney general, Grewal now heads the enforcement division of the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. Grewal’s assistant in 2019, Andrew Bruck, who did not testify, would serve as attorney general himself.
Grewal said Menendez asked Grewal’s cousin, a friend of the senator, for Grewal’s personal cell phone prior to the January 2019 phone call.
Grewal said he remembered the senator calling during an end-of-day meeting the attorney general was having with his staff. Grewal said he stepped into a side room of his Trenton office to take the call.
After the senator chatted, he expressed concern about how the state Insurance Fraud Bureau, which reports to Grewal, treated Hispanic suspects compared to how it treated non-Hispanic suspects, especially in the trucking industry.
Then it became clear to Grewal that the senator was interested in a specific case or cases.
“He didn’t like how this case was handled by our office and wanted it handled differently,” Grewal said.
Grewal asked the senator if he was calling about a specific case and if an attorney was already involved. Yes, the senator told him, Michael Critchley was handling the case.
Grewal said he told Menendez that Critchley — one of the most prominent attorneys in the state — was a fine lawyer and that if Critchley had concerns, he should raise them, but with the right people.
Months later, Menendez’s staff reached out to arrange an in-person meeting at the senator’s district office in Newark. When Grewal visited in early September 2019, he brought Bruck with him. When Menendez saw them both there, he seemed surprised, Grewal said, as if the senator had expected a one-on-one meeting.
With a folder in front of him, the senator eventually raised the same issue as on the January call.
Grewal gave a similar response, saying he did not discuss current affairs, and the meeting ended shortly afterwards.
Weitzman asked Grewal if other elected officials had tried to talk about pending cases and brought up a conversation Grewal had with former Sen. Dick Codey in which Codey tried to bring up a pending case.
Grewal said it was unusual and only happened once or twice when he was attorney general.
After the conversation with Codey, the senator introduced a bill that would limit when attorneys general could run for governor.
Weitzman asked if Menendez had ever threatened Grewal with retaliation. Grewal said no, saying the senator remained calm and friendly during both interactions. But, Grewal said, he knew the senator was a close political ally of Gov. Phil Murphy, a fellow Democrat.
