Corruption trial Senator Robert Menendeza powerful New Jersey Democrat, swung into action in Manhattan on Wednesday, with combative opening statements and an unusual statement by the defense.
Speaking directly before the jury, a US prosecutor affirmed that Mr. Menendez had “sold his power”, exchanging favors related to Egyptian and New Jersey businessmen for gold bars and cash. and a Mercedes-Benz convertible. But it was Mr. Menendez’s lawyer who rocked the courtroom, blaming the senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez.
Mr. Menendez, 70, showed little emotion as he watched opening statements from the courtroom, where he is facing some of the most serious charges ever brought against a sitting U.S. senator . He has pleaded not guilty.
He is on trial along with two businessmen, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana. Prosecutors also charged Ms. Menendez, but her trial was canceled. delayed until July for health reasons.
Here are five takeaways from the senator’s third day in court:
The prosecution tried to keep it simple.
Prosecutors have brought a dizzying series of charges against Mr. Menendez, laying out four rounds of charges related to the halal meat monopoly, a Qatari tycoon and the inner workings of the U.S. government. All of that could easily confuse a jury.
So, in charting the course of their case, they gave the panel a much simpler view: “This case is about a public official who puts greed first,” Lara Pomerantz , assistant United States attorney, said. “An official who puts his own interests above the people’s obligations is someone who sells his power.”
What the jury needs to understand, she emphasized, are the favors granted by Mr. Menendez, including a ghost-written letter to help Egypt and calls for pressure on key government officials. In return, the couple amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and more, with Ms. Menendez as the “middleman.”
The Defense: A Tale of Two Menendezes.
Mr. Menendez’s lawyer, Avi Weitzman, used his first words to the jury to flatly deny that settlement. But at the core of his defense was a shocking proposition: Don’t confuse the senator with his wife.
Mr. Menendez, his lawyer said, is “an American patriot,” the son of working-class immigrants who made it to Congress. All those cases where Mr. Menendez intentionally abused his position to help a foreign power or New Jersey businessmen? They showed a senator “doing his job,” Mr. Weitzman said, asserting that the government found no record of Mr. Menendez negotiating a bribe.
According to the lawyer, he did not say the same about Ms. Menendez, who came late in the senator’s life and hid her financial burden and communications from him. Mr. Weitzman did not directly say that Ms. Menendez had accepted bribes. But if she did, he wanted to make it clear that his client had no idea “what she was asking others to give her” — especially all that gold.
The gold was hidden in the cabinet.
To make his point, Mr. Weitzman displayed photos of a cabinet he believed belonged to Ms. Menendez. He revealed that it was there, in her private quarters, that the FBI found gold bars and cash with Mr. Daibes’ fingerprints.
The lawyer said the senator knew that his wife had some gold, but assumed it came from her wealthy family of Persian rug merchants. The lawyer said that when Mr. Menendez kept searching for gold prices on Google, he was looking to see how much money Ms. Menendez could make from the family’s gift – not as a bribe.
“He did not know about the gold bars that existed in that cabinet,” he said.
Likewise, Mr. Weitzman said Mr. Menendez did not know how Ms. Menendez got the money to buy a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible. In his guilty plea, another New Jersey businessman admitted that he gave the car to Ms. Menendez “in exchange for influencing a U.S. senator to stop a criminal investigation.”
The high-stakes trial is overshadowed. Blame Trump.
The case against Mr. Menendez could hardly be more serious. It made history: Mr. Menendez was the first senator to be indicted in more than one bribery case. (Firstly ended in a mistrial in 2017.)
But as his trial begins this week in Lower Manhattan, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the trial is being overshadowed by the state courthouse just a few hundred yards away. That’s where, due to a time warp, former President Donald J. Trump is in the middle His hush money trial.
The first trial of a former president inspired cable news coverage everywhere. Unlike the Menendez case, it included nationally known witnesses, such as Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen. And it drew a parade of high-ranking guests to support Mr. Trump, including the speaker of the House.
All of that is probably good news for Mr. Menendez and his party, which is vulnerable to political attack after allowing him to continue serving in the Senate under indictment.
Expect a long trial. That’s not good for Democrats in the Senate.
The case has moved unusually quickly since the govt made allegations for the first time in September 2023. As for the trial, don’t expect a verdict anytime soon.
Prosecutors said it could take them up to six weeks to unravel the tangled web of corruption they say surrounded Mr. Menendez. As Judge Sidney H. Stein read the list of dozens of potential witnesses (including several sitting senators), he informed jurors that they would likely hear testimony in Spanish and Arabic.
The defense said it will then take another one to two weeks to reach a verdict around July 4. Except for the odd day off, Mr. Menendez will be stuck in the courtroom the entire time, depriving benefit the Democratic Party in an important vote in the election. Senate, where they control a 51 to 49 majority.
Maria Cramer And Maia Coleman Report contributions.
