Prosecutors on Friday rested their case against Sen. Bob Menendez, the New Jersey senator accused of trading his political influence for gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz, and cash.
They spent the past six weeks painting the longtime Democratic senator as a greedy politician who held court in his New Jersey home, rang a tiny silver bell to summon his wife, and puffed on cigars. They claimed he agreed to take hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange to steer aid to Egypt, help facilitate a halal meat monopoly, and disrupt criminal investigations on behalf of friends.
Menendez, 70, and his wife, Nadine, were both charged in the yearslong scheme.
She was supposed to be on trial with her husband, but her court date has been pushed back to at least August while she recovers from breast cancer. Menendez is on trial with two of the New Jersey businessmen accused of bribing him after a third pleaded guilty and cut a deal with the government. Menendez, Nadine Menendez,
Wael Hana and Fred Daibes have all pleaded not guilty.
Menendez’s lawyers have painted him as a man who was lovestruck and duped by his wife, unaware of the gold bars and cash as well as the deals she allegedly made behind his back to get them. They have also blamed his penchant for hoarding cash and gold on his Cuban heritage, age, and ignorance.
His team is expected to spend three days calling witnesses who will describe his relationship with his wife of two years as a whirlwind and tumultuous.
Menendez’s lawyer, Adam Fee, is expected to argue that the conspiracy charges should be dropped because, at the time of the alleged conspiracy, Menendez and Nadine Menendez were not together. In fact, she was with another love interest, Doug Anton.
“At the time they are supposed to be acting together to get the senator to betray his country, he is breaking up with her,” Fee said. “He is telling Nadine: ‘I’m going to cancel the trip we had planned. I want the jewelry I gave you back.’”
The first two defense witnesses to be called will be Menendez’s sister and Nadine Menendez’s sister, who is expected to testify about the on-again, off-again relationship between her sister and the senator. Nadine Menendez’s sister is also expected to testify about Anton and how he nearly got in the way of the relationship between the now-married couple.
Nadine Menendez allegedly asked her sister to talk to the senator and tell him that she was leaving Anton.
The New Jersey power couple got back together after Nadine Menendez was involved in a fatal car crash on Dec. 12, 2018, that ended in the death of a pedestrian. She was not tested for drugs or alcohol nor charged in the accident. Nadine Menendez called the senator from the scene, and they spoke for three minutes. They were engaged less than a year later.
Jurors were told about the accident and how Nadine Menendez was in need of a car.
Earlier this month, Jose Uribe, the prosecution’s star witness, told jurors that he bribed the senator by giving his wife a Mercedes-Benz convertible on the condition the sitting senator would “stop and kill” any criminal investigation looking into companies tied to him and his friends.
Uribe testified he made a deal with Nadine Menendez during a March 2019 telephone call.
“Nadine will contact Sen. Menendez, use his influence and power to do anything possible to stop and kill investigations, so my family … so it doesn’t get to my family, and my family doesn’t get hurt,” Uribe testified. “She agreed to the terms.”
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Uribe, the prosecution’s lone cooperating witness, has pleaded guilty to multiple state and federal crimes linked to his businesses. He will be sentenced on Oct. 29.
It is unclear whether Menendez, Hana, or Daibes will take the stand in their own defense.
