Washington — Jurors are deliberating for a second day in New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial after they left Friday evening without reaching a verdict.
The trial, initially expected to last six weeks, is now going into its tenth week. Menendez pleaded not guilty to 16 felony counts, including obstruction of justice, acting as a foreign agent, bribery, extortion and honest services wire fraud. He’s accused of using his political influence to benefit two foreign governments, while helping three New Jersey businessmen in return for bribes that included stacks of cash, gold bars, mortgage payments and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.
Prosecutors argued that Menendez used his influence as the then-chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to secretly benefit Egypt and pressure an Agriculture Department official to protect a halal certification monopoly Egypt granted to businessman Wael Hana, who was paying the senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez.
They also accused Menendez of trying to quash state and federal criminal cases related to former insurance broker Jose Uribe and real estate developer Fred Daibes. Menendez was helping Daibes land a lucrative investment deal with Qatar at the same time, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, tried to obstruct the investigation after they were initially charged by characterizing some of the alleged bribe payments as loans, leading their former lawyers to make false statements to prosecutors.
Nadine Menendez’s trial was postponed until August because she’s recovering from breast cancer surgery. She also pleaded not guilty.
Hana and Daibes, who have also pleaded not guilty, are on trial with the senator.
Uribe pleaded guilty earlier this year and testified in this trial that he asked Menendez directly for his help, months after he said he handed Nadine Menendez $15,000 in cash in a restaurant parking lot for a downpayment on a $60,000 Mercedes. Uribe made her car payments until June 2022 —the same month the FBI searched the Menendezes’ home and found over $480,000 in cash and gold bars worth more than $100,000.
Envelopes containing Daibes’ fingerprints or DNA that were seized from Menendez’s home had $82,500, Megan Rafferty, a forensic accountant at the FBI, testified earlier this month. Nearly the same amount of cash that was put into circulation in February 2018 or later was found in envelopes in Menendez’s basement or his home office, she said.
From 2018 to mid-2022 —the timeframe of the alleged scheme— Menendez withdrew about $55,000 in cash from his account at the Senate Federal Credit Union, according to Rafferty, who said the average withdrawal was about $400. There were no bank or credit card records showing withdrawals of $10,000 — the amount of cash found in a number of envelopes in the home.
Russell Richardson, a forensic accountant who analyzed Menendez’s cash withdrawals on behalf of the defense, testified that the senator took out about $400 twice a month between 2008 and 2022. Those withdrawals totaled more than $150,000, he said.
After he was indicted, Menendez explained the cash stockpile as a years-long habit that stemmed from his family’s experience in Cuba, before he was born.
The senator didn’t testify in his own defense. His lawyers asserted the government is prosecuting routine legislative activity. They’ve tried to pin the blame on his wife, saying she had financial troubles that she did not disclose to her husband.
Ash Kalmar contributed reporting.