NEW YORK (AP) — New Jersey senator’s bribery trial. Bob Menendez is set to begin opening statements Wednesday as prosecutors try to convince a jury that the longtime powerful Democrat was willing to sell his influence to benefit three businessmen in exchange for cash, gold bars and a luxury car.
The three-term senator has insisted since his arrest that he is not guilty of charges that he used his influence to help three New Jersey businessmen, including providing favors to the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
Prosecutors say the men gave gifts to Menendez and his wife to ensure Menendez would help them.
Menéndez, 70, is on trial in Manhattan federal court with two of the businessmen. A third pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the other defendants. Menéndez’s wife is scheduled to stand trial in July.
For the senator, the trial represents the second time he has been criminally accused in a Federal Court in the last decade.
In 2017, a federal government deadlocked jury on corruption charges filed in New Jersey, and prosecutors did not attempt to retry him.
Those charges were unrelated to the current indictment of Menendez, who held the powerful position of chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before he was forced from the post after the new charges were revealed last fall.
Judge Sidney H. Stein said Tuesday night that he expected to have a jury empaneled by midmorning Wednesday at the latest. Opening statements would begin soon after.
Menéndez is being tried by Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer, and businessman Wael Hana. All pleaded innocent.
One indictment alleges that Daibes handed over gold bars and cash to Menendez and his wife to get the senator to help him secure a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund, acting in a manner favorable to the Qatari government.
The indictment also claims that Menéndez did things that benefited Egyptian authorities in exchange for bribes from Hana, while the businessman secured a lucrative deal with the Egyptian government to certify that imported meat met Islamic dietary requirements.
Menéndez has said he will not seek re-election on the Democratic ticket this fall, although he has not ruled out the possibility of running as an independent.
