NEW YORK (AP) — A New Jersey businessman took a starring role on the witness stand in the bribery case against Sen. Bob Menendez on Friday, telling a jury he believed he had a settlement worth $200,000 to $200,000. 250,000 in 2018 for the Democrat pressured the New Jersey Attorney General’s office to stop investigating his friends and family.
José Uribe testified in Manhattan federal court in the afternoon, giving important testimony against Menendez and two other businessmen accused of conspiracy along with Menendez’s wife. Next week, Menendez’s lawyers will question the naturalized U.S. citizen.
“Next week we will know the truth,” Menendez said shortly before getting into the car that took him away from Manhattan federal court, where he has been on trial for a month. Although he usually speaks briefly in Spanish each day as he leaves court, he made the truth comment in English.
Uribe, 57, who pleaded guilty to charges in a March cooperation agreement, was the government’s star witness in its attempt to secure a conviction against the senator, who once held the powerful role of chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. . He was forced out after charges were filed last fall.
Menéndez, 70, pleaded not guilty to charges that he accepted gold bars, cash and a luxury car in exchange for doing favors for businessmen. Two businessmen and Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, also pleaded not guilty. Nadine Menendez’s trial has been postponed until at least July after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Uribe testified that he was a close friend of Wael Hana, who is on trial with Menéndez, when Hana told him in early 2018 that New Jersey state criminal investigations revolving around the trucking business of a friend of his and his own insurer could largely be put to rest if they were willing to spend $200,000 to $250,000.
Uribe said Hana told him he would go to Nadine Arslanian, who had started dating Menendez that year, and then “Nadine would go to Senator Menéndez,” although Uribe did not testify about how the couple could resolve multiple investigations.
Uribe said he held a political fundraiser for Menéndez on July 13, 2018, which the senator attended, raising $50,000. He said he attended an afterparty with Menendez and Arslanian that included cocktails as well as “some laughs, some jokes and some dancing,” but there was no mention of the work he expected Menendez to do on his behalf.
“It was a crowded and noisy place,” Uribe said.
He said his confidence that the arrangement was working waned in the fall, when an investigator from the attorney general’s office asked to interview his employee.
“I wasn’t happy,” he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz showed jurors a series of text messages between Uribe and Hana in which Uribe pressured his friend to get the senator to stop criminal investigations.
“Please make sure your friend knows this,” Uribe wrote to Hana in a message.
Pomerantz asked who he referred to as “his friend.”
“Senator Menéndez,” replied Uribe. Hana, according to the texts, responded: “I will.”
Hana arranged for Uribe to have dinner with Menendez and Arslanian at a restaurant in October 2018, but Uribe testified there was no mention of the arrangement.
“Nothing of value was discussed, I will say,” Uribe testified. “It was a useless, meaningless meeting.”
Uribe said he began communicating directly with Nadine Arslanian in March 2019 and promised he would buy her a car if she fulfilled the agreement to get the senator to end the New Jersey criminal investigations.
“She agreed to the terms,” he said.
When the prosecutor asked Uribe what he understood from the terms of the agreement, he said he understood that Nadine Arslanian would contact Menendez and have him use his “influence and power to do everything possible to impede and kill” the investigations. .
On Thursday, former New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal testified that Menendez, in a phone call in early 2019 and an office meeting in September 2019, tried to talk to him about a criminal investigation. Grewal said he followed his policy and refused to do so, telling Menendez to contact defense attorneys so they could contact trial prosecutors or the judge.
Uribe, of Clifton, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in March, saying during his confession that he gave Nadine Menendez a Mercedes-Benz in exchange for her husband “using his power and influence as a United States Senator to obtain a favorable outcome and prevent all investigations related to one of my associates.”
Uribe was accused of buying the luxury car 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 accident.
Menendez is also accused of helping another New Jersey business associate secure a lucrative deal with the Egyptian government. Prosecutors allege that in exchange for bribes, Menendez did things that benefited Egypt, including writing a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to lift the withholding of $300 million in aid.
Menendez was also accused of using his international influence to help a friend secure a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund, notably by taking measures favorable to the Qatari government.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
