NEW YORK (AP) – Lawyers for Sen. Bob Menendez on Wednesday accused the politician's wife of her own legal problems and told jurors at the start of his corruption trial that the Democrat's wife had received gifts from the trio. He said he did not know that he had received a . He was a businessman and had no idea about the cash and gold bars hidden in a closet at his New Jersey home.
“She kept it a secret from him what she was asking others to provide,” defense attorney Avi Weitzman said, describing it as a desperate search for funds from relatives and friends. . She said, “She had no intention of letting Bob know that she was in financial trouble.''
Jurors heard opening statements Wednesday in a trial in which Menendez is accused of accepting large bribes in exchange for various corrupt favors, including taking actions that benefited the Egyptian government as a senator. It started.
Prosecutors portrayed Menendez as a traitor to his country.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz told the jury that while the senator's wife, Nadine Menendez, did play a central role in her husband's corruption, he also used her as a conduit to bribe-paying businessmen and He said he was hiding in the back.
“He was careful not to send too many text messages,” she said. “He used Nadine as an intermediary to pass messages between him and the people he was paying bribes to.”
Nadine Menendez is also charged in the case, but her trial has been postponed until at least July because a recently discovered serious medical condition requires surgery. She maintained her innocence. The two started dating in early 2018, married two years later, and moved into her home in Englewood Cliffs.
Senator Menendez is charged with bribery, fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice, and being a foreign agent of Egypt. Evidence includes gold bars and more than $400,000 in cash that the FBI found during a search of the couple's home, “in safes, in jacket pockets, in shoes, and around the house.” It was hidden “all over the place,” Pomerantz said.
Menendez, 70, resigned from his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after his arrest, but he resisted calls to resign. Although he sat out the Democratic primary, he said he may run as an independent this year if he is acquitted.
Mr. Menendez has held continuous public office since 1986, including 14 years as a state representative in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2006, then-Gov. Jon Corzine appointed Menendez to the Senate seat vacated when he became governor.
In her remarks to the jury, Pomerantz described Menendez as a public servant who “puts his own interests ahead of his duties to the public.”
“This is Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey,” Pomerantz said, pointing to him. He was also corrupt.''
Pomerantz said the senator took official actions to assist New Jersey real estate developer Fred Dives in exchange for bribes. and two other businessmen, Wael Hana and Jose Uribe. Daives and Hana, who are on trial along with Menendez, have pleaded not guilty. Their attorneys are scheduled to make opening statements Thursday. Mr. Uribe recently pleaded guilty and is expected to testify.
Pomerantz said Menendez tried to use his influence to corrupt the U.S. justice system by promoting the appointment of a federal prosecutor in New Jersey that could protect Duives from criminal prosecution. Stated.
“This was not politics as usual,” she told jurors. “This is politics for profit, and the U.S. Senate bought into it. … Menendez sold his power. And Hana and Dives were happy to buy from him.”
Pomerantz said Duives worked in part to get the senators to work in favor of the Qatari government and get the Menendez and his wife to help secure a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund. He allegedly gave gold bars and cash to the suspect.
Additionally, despite having no business experience, Menendez entered into a lucrative contract with the Egyptian government to certify that imported meat met Islamic dietary requirements, resulting in bribes and bribes from Hana. In exchange, she said, they did things that benefited Egyptian authorities.
Defense attorney Weitzman called Menendez an “American patriot” and called prosecutors “completely wrong.”
He said Menendez “did not accept any bribes, nor did he accept any cash, money or cars.”
“He was not and is not a foreign agent of the Egyptian government. He did not violate any laws,” Weitzman said.
Weitzman said there was nothing unusual or wrong with Menendez's dealings with Egypt and Qatar because senators are supposed to engage in diplomacy and support their constituents. He pointed out that Menendez has taken a tough stance against Egypt, including the president, over Egypt's human rights record.
Prosecutors say the three businessmen gave the Menendez gifts, but Weitzman told the jury that Duives' fingerprints were only found on one of the senator's hundreds of envelopes. , said that was not surprising given that he had known Menendez for decades. All remaining fingerprints were found on an envelope containing Nadine Menendez's cash, he added.
“There are no fingerprints or DNA found on the senator's cash. All fingerprints and DNA were found in his wife's closet or bank safe deposit box,” Weitzman said.
The lawyer said the gold bullion was in the house because of “cultural” habits of Nadine Menendez, who grew up in a Lebanese family and kept the gold for financial security and as a gift.
Weitzman also said the senator's family had fled Cuba before he was born and lost all their savings, except for the cash they had hidden in their home. As a result, he said, Menendez kept hundreds of dollars a week in cash at his home for decades, most of it in bags in his basement.
After the jury returned home, the defense requested a mistrial, arguing that the government's opening statement had gone too far. The judge denied it.
The trial is the second time Menendez has faced criminal charges in federal court in the past 10 years.
In 2017, prosecutors did not seek a new trial for him after a federal jury deadlocked on corruption charges brought in New Jersey.