Afrigather Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., plans to run once more for his senate seat as an impartial if he’s acquitted. File Picture by Bonnie Money/UPI | License Photo
July 12 (UPI) — Jurors have begun deliberating in Sen. Bob Menendez‘s federal corruption trial in New York.
The New Jersey Democrat and his co-defendants, businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, are on trial for his or her function in a multi-faceted corruption scheme the place prosecutors alleged the senator accepted luxurious bribes in change for political favors over a number of years.
A third businessman, Jose Uribe, pleaded responsible to a number of fees and agreed to testify towards the opposite defendants previous to the trial.
Menendez faces 18 federal fees of bribery, obstruction and appearing as a overseas agent. Prosecutors alleged he used his energy as a senator to learn the governments of Egypt and Qatar in change for items, and to intrude within the bribery investigations.
His spouse, Nadine Menendez, is also charged within the case, however will likely be tried individually in August after a decide granted a delay in her trial for her to bear remedy for breast most cancers.
They each have pleaded not responsible.
Throughout 9 weeks of testimony, jurors heard from 37 witnesses within the case, aside from Sen. Menendez, who selected to not testify.
“From my perspective, the federal government has didn’t show each side of its case, and for me to testify and provides them one other probability for a second summation … it is merely one thing that does not make any sense to me in any respect,” Menendez stated.
Throughout closing arguments Monday, prosecutors accused the three-term Democrat of placing “his energy up on the market” and exhibiting a “clear sample of corruption.”
“Menendez was in cost. His spouse, Nadine, was his go-between,” prosecutor Paul Monteleoni stated.
Protection attorneys, nonetheless, stated the federal government has “not come shut” to proving Menendez even accepted bribes.
Prosecutors throughout testimony introduced greater than $486,000 in money and $100,000 in gold bars discovered throughout the 2022 FBI raid on the Menendez’s dwelling.
A Mendendez lawyer claimed the saved money was a behavior born from household trauma after the senator’s household fled the Communist regime in Cuba in 1951, however Menendez was born in New York, and Fidel Castro had not but come to energy at the moment.
All through the trial, the senator’s attorneys additionally sought to put the blame on his spouse, arguing that she was accountable for the dealings and hid them from her husband.
That is the second time Menendez has stood trial on corruption fees. The senator in 2015 confronted federal corruption fees in an unrelated case, however the fees had been dropped after the jury failed to succeed in a verdict.
Menendez, who’s up for re-election in November, has confronted repeated calls from Democrats to step down. He, as an alternative, filed to run final month as an impartial. If he’s acquitted, he would run towards Rep. Andy Kim, who received the spring main for his senate seat.
Senate Democrats fear the attainable situation may break up the Democratic vote and depart the sphere open for Republican nominee Curtis Bashaw to swipe Menendez’s seat, shrinking Democrats’ already slender majority.
Menendez is one in all three congressmen on trial for federal corruption, together with Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and the lately expelled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y.
