For the second time, Senator Bob Menendez faces a corruption trial. This time it involves gold bars

NEW YORK (AP) — For the second time in a decade, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez faces a corruption trial on Monday, with his political career and freedom at stake in a criminal case that has already forced him to leave one of the most powerful positions in Congress.

The 70-year-old New Jersey Democrat and his wife are accused of accepting bribes from three wealthy businessmen in his home state and performing a series of favors in return, including interfering in criminal investigations and taking actions to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

Menéndez’s lawyers say he followed the rules and did nothing illegal. He spoke optimistically about mounting a re-election campaign in the summer if he is acquitted.

But even if he escapes without conviction, as he did in a previous corruption case in 2017, the damage done to his reputation could make a political return almost impossible.

FBI agents who searched the senator’s New Jersey home found a stash of gold bars worth more than $100,000 and more than $486,000 in cash, some of it stuffed into the pockets of the clothes hanging on his shoulders. cabinets.

His Democratic colleagues in Washington, DC, appear to have already written him off, repeatedly encouraging him to resign.

“The evidence against him is vivid,” said Dan Cassino, executive director of research at Fairleigh Dickinson University. “This is not paperwork or checks: these are gold bars. The images are powerful, and given that New Jersey voters typically don’t know much about the officials who represent them, this may be the only thing they know about Menendez.”

Menéndez maintained a defiant stance.

“I am innocent and I will prove it no matter how many charges they continue to rack up,” he said after the indictment against him was updated again in early March to add charges that he attempted to obstruct the investigation.

Menendez was forced to resign his powerful position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee shortly after the revelation last fall of charges that included bribery, fraud, extortion and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt.

The senator’s lawyers have suggested in court documents that he will defend himself in part by claiming that his wife, Nadine, kept him in the dark about his dealings with the businessmen, who are also accused in the case.

One of them, José Uribe, pleaded guilty and is expected to testify. He was accused of buying a Mercedes-Benz for Nadine Menendez after her previous car was destroyed when she ran over and killed a man crossing the street. She did not face criminal charges in connection with the fatal crash.

Prosecutors said Senator Menéndez twice tried to help Uribe by trying to influence criminal investigations involving his business partners.

Another man, Wael Hana, is accused of bribing Menendez for helping him secure a lucrative deal with the Egyptian government to certify that imported meat met Islamic dietary requirements. Prosecutors said Menendez won favor with Egyptian authorities through acts that included ghostwriting a letter to other senators encouraging them to lift the withholding of $300 million in military aid.

Menendez also pressured a U.S. agriculture official to stop opposing Hana’s company as the sole halal certifier, prosecutors said.

The third businessman, real estate developer Fred Daibes, is accused of handing over gold bars and cash to Menéndez and his wife to get the senator to use his influence to help him secure a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund, including taking measures favorable to the Qatari government.

Nadine Menéndez was accused along with her husband, but her trial was postponed until at least July due to a health problem. Her actions, however, will be fundamental to the narrative that prosecutors will present to jurors through dozens of witnesses during a trial expected to last up to two months.

The three-term senator has held positions at all levels of government in New Jersey. He got his start in the turbulent political world of Hudson County, an area across from Manhattan known for influential party bosses.

Menendez had two years out of high school in 1974 when he was elected to the Union City board of education. After stints in the New Jersey state Assembly, the state Senate and eventually the U.S. House, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2006 when Jon Corzine resigned to become governor. He won the election later that year.

His political career had its first major crisis in 2015, when he was indicted on charges involving a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist, accused of buying Menendez’s influence through luxurious vacations and campaign contributions.

At the time, Menendez vehemently denied the allegations and promised not to resign from the Senate. A trial ended in 2017 with a deadlocked jury and federal prosecutors in New Jersey dropped the case.

Menéndez not only remained in Congress, he was re-elected and maintained the presidency of the Foreign Relations Committee. He married Nadine Menendez in 2020 after the couple dated for two years.

Menéndez also remained in the Senate after this latest accusation, ignoring calls for him to resign before the end of his six-year term on January 3. the possibility of an independent race. That could complicate matters for Democrats, who have a narrow advantage in the U.S. Senate and can hardly afford the prospect of a three-way election in the Democratic stronghold of New Jersey.

Unlike 2015, however, his party has largely abandoned him. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and others called on him to resign. Democratic Rep. Andy Kim launched a campaign for Menendez’s seat the day after the indictment.

Judge Sidney H. Stein rejected Menendez’s attempt to claim legislative immunity that protects him from the charges.

The judge has not yet decided whether the defense can call a psychiatrist to show that Menéndez habitually kept money in his home as a “fear of scarcity” response to family stories about how his savings were confiscated in the communist revolution in Cuba before he being born, and because of financial problems arising from his father’s gambling problem, a struggling carpenter.

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Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey.