Sen. Bob Menendez, a powerful New Jersey Democrat, was convicted Tuesday in a sprawling bribery scheme in which he was accused of selling out his office for lucrative bribes, including cash and gold bars.
A federal jury convicted Menendez on all 16 felony counts after prosecutors portrayed him as the puppet-master of a complex bribery scheme that involved two foreign governments and three New Jersey businessmen.
The verdict marks a remarkable downfall for the longtime senator who sat atop the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee and beat separate bribery charges in 2017.
Menendez tried to shift the blame to his wife, Nadine Menendez, arguing she kept him in the dark about her dealings with the businessmen and her financial troubles. Her trial was postponed as she recovers from breast cancer surgery.
In his closing arguments, prosecutor Paul Monteleoni said the senator “was in charge” and his wife “was his go-between, demanding payment, receiving payment and passing messages but always — always — keeping him informed.”
“He calls the shots,” Monteleoni said.
The scheme began in 2018, around the time Menendez began dating his now wife, according to prosecutors.
They alleged Menendez acted to secretly benefit the government of Egypt, including ghostwriting a letter for the country lobbying his Senate colleagues to release military aid; pressured a U.S. Department of Agriculture official to protect a halal certification monopoly Egypt granted to a businessman, Wael Hana, who was paying the senator’s wife; attempted to quash a federal prosecution against a second businessman, Fred Daibes, while helping him land a lucrative investment deal with Qatar; and interfering in criminal investigations by the New Jersey attorney general’s office into the associates of a third businessman, Jose Uribe. Menendez was also accused of obstruction of justice after he and his wife tried to characterize some of the alleged bribe payments as loans and “caused” their former lawyers to make false statements to prosecutors.
In return for political favors, the businessmen provided Menendez and his wife with lavish gifts, including cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, furniture and mortgage payments.
Menendez was on trial with Hana and Daibes.