As the corruption trial of New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez got underway Thursday, a prosecutor handed the jury in the first row of the jury box a plastic bag containing a central object. of the government’s case: a nugget of gold glittering under the courtroom lights.
One by one, the jurors held the bag, turned it over in their hands and felt its weight before passing it to their neighbor – the jury’s first explicit exposure to the evidence that the prosecution The officer said a bribe was paid to Mr. Menendez, 70, and his wife.
Prosecutor Lara Pomerantz quickly gave the jury another bag containing several gold bars. But before she could reach a third verdict, Judge Sidney H. Stein said the jury “felt the weight of gold.”
Mr. Menendez, a Democrat, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, have been accused of accepting gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars collectively, including gold, cash and a valuable Mercedes-Benz convertible. $60,000, in exchange for the Senator doling out political favors to the governments of Egypt and Qatar and three New Jersey businessmen.
The senator and two of the businessmen – Wael Hana and Fred Daibes – are being tried together in Manhattan federal court. Ms Menendez, 57, was to be tried with them, but her trial was postponed after her lawyer said she had a “serious health condition”.
On Thursday, the senator revealed that Ms. Menendez was suffering treated for breast cancer and is preparing to undergo a mastectomy and possibly radiotherapy.
A third businessman charged in the case, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty and is expected to testify as a prosecution witness at trial.
The trial of Mr. Menendez, Mr. Hana and Mr. Daibes is expected to last more than a month. In Wednesday’s opening remarks, Avi Weitzman, the senator’s attorney, did the majority Blame the pin for bribery charges against Mrs. Menendez, who he said kept her husband in the dark about her dire financial past and “what she asked others to give her.”
On Thursday morning, lawyers for the senator’s co-defendants, in opening statements, portrayed their clients as friends of the couple whose innocent act of generosity was accused by prosecutors. unfairly treated as criminals.
“It’s criminalizing friendship,” said Mr. Hana’s lawyer, Lawrence S. Lustberg. Mr. Daibes’ lawyer, César de Castro, said his client did not give anything to the Menendezes family to influence them or ask the senator to take any official action on his behalf. anyone.
The handover of the gold bars came as FBI agent Aristotelis Kougemitros, the government’s first witness, testified about the gold and cash seized during the June search of the Menendezes’ home in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 2022
Special Agent Kougemitros, who led the search team, said investigators seized $486,461 in cash, 11 1-ounce gold bars and 2 1-kilogram gold bars.
Although the agent’s testimony focused on the valuable items found during the search, his account, along with the FBI photos taken, gave the jury a personal visit unusual secret to Menendezes’s house.
One photo after another was displayed from inside the couple’s bedroom, which was locked and could only be opened with the help of an FBI locksmith, the representative testified. Inside were photos of the senator and his wife. There is an exercise machine next to their bed; even their private bathrooms are visible.
A photo of the wardrobe’s contents shows turquoise blue underwear and playful ties, including two depicting mice eating cheese.
Agent Kougemitros said that with the help of a locksmith, the group broke into two bedroom closets, each locked with a deadbolt, and found gold bars, jewelry and a safe. . Inside the safe were boxes and envelopes containing cash. Elsewhere in the house, agents found more cash: in clothes, duffel bags, plastic bags and men’s shoes. The Mercedes was parked in a messy garage.
During the initial stages of the search, Agent Kougemitros said, agents carefully sorted, counted and photographed the cash. Eventually, he said, “the sheer volume of bills” was too much to count by hand, “so we got money counters — you might have seen them in the movies.”
At one point, the agent stepped off the witness stand and opened a box to show the jury a bag full of cash that he said was found in the senator’s office and contained $100,000. .
Late Thursday, Adam Fee, the senator’s attorney, raised questions during cross-examination about whether the senator had access to the bedroom closet where the safe and gold were found. or not. He focused on the location of a blue blazer that the agent said was hanging in a closet and was linked to the senator.
Mr Fee enlarged the photos which he said clearly showed the coat hanging on the adjacent door outside the wardrobe.
“Do you want to change that statement?” he asked the agent. He didn’t change his account.
The cross-examination fit the defense strategy that Ms. Menendez had secrets that the senator was not privy to. On Wednesday, in Mr. Weitzman’s opening statement, he emphasized that point, saying the senator did not have a key to the locker nor did he know the gold was stored there.
“That’s Nadine’s wardrobe,” he said. “In fact, when you look inside the closet, you will see that it contains all of Nadine’s clothes. Women’s Clothing.”
Tracey Tully Report contributions.
