U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was convicted Tuesday of all corruption costs, together with accepting bribes in gold and money from three New Jersey businessmen and Egyptian authorities brokers.
The courtroom’s verdict got here after a nine-week trial during which prosecutors argued the Democrat abused his energy to guard and enrich himself and associates, together with his spouse, with the cooperation of Egyptian officers and serving to the nation to have entry to hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in US navy help.
Menendez, 70, pleaded not responsible. He insisted publicly that he was solely doing his job as chairman of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee. He stated the gold bars present in his New Jersey dwelling by the FBI belonged to his spouse, Nadine Menendez. She too was charged, however her trial was postponed so she might get well from breast most cancers surgical procedure. She herself has declared herself harmless.
The decision, handed down in federal courtroom in Manhattan, comes 4 months earlier than Election Day and probably dooms Menendez’s possibilities of re-election as an unbiased candidate.
The trial was the second time the New Jersey Democrat has confronted corruption costs. In a earlier prosecution on different costs in 2017 he was acquitted.
His co-defendants, two New Jersey businessmen, had been additionally convicted. One other businessman pleaded responsible earlier than the trial and testified in opposition to Menendez and the opposite defendants.
Money in… boots
The jury’s determination is the end result of a prolonged investigation that included a June 2022 FBI raid on the couple’s Inglewood Cliffs dwelling. On the dwelling, FBI brokers discovered almost $150,000 value of gold bars and money, principally in stacks of $100 payments, totaling greater than $480,000.
An agent testified that he ordered the property seized as a result of he suspected they could be proceeds of crime. Stacks of money, he stated, had been discovered stuffed into boots, shoe packing containers and jackets belonging to the senator.
At trial, prosecutors argued that the gold bars, money and a automobile had been bribes. Protection legal professionals disputed this, arguing that the gold belonged to his spouse. They stated the money got here from the senator’s regular hoarding of money at dwelling, having discovered that his dad and mom had fled Cuba in 1951 with solely the money they’d stashed away.
Assist to Egypt
Extra surprising than the money or gold, nevertheless, was proof that Menendez had earned a few of it by utilizing his highly effective place on the Senate Overseas Relations Committee to push for measures that benefited Egypt, an essential U.S. ally that’s usually criticized for human rights violations.
Prosecutors stated Nadine Menendez was a sycophant to her highly effective husband, exchanging messages with an Egyptian normal and arranging a go to to Washington by Egypt’s intelligence chief. To 1 normal he texted: “Anytime you want something, you have got my quantity and we’ll make all of it occur.”
Senator Menendez, prosecutors stated, helped Egyptian officers with details about US Embassy workers in Cairo and by writing a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to elevate the $300 million navy help embargo.
The costs, first introduced final September, expanded over time, ultimately together with bribery, extortion, fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and acts in favor of a overseas nation, Egypt.
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