A New Jersey businessman testified Friday that he bribed Sen. Bob Menendez, telling a jury in the New Jersey Democrat’s bribery trial that he gave the lawmaker’s wife a Mercedes in exchange for his influence.
José Uribe, who pleaded guilty in March and is cooperating with prosecutors, was questioned on the witness stand about who he bribed. Uribe told the jury that he had bribed Menendez and conspired with another businessman, Wael Hana. Uribe also said that the senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted the bribes he paid. The senator, his wife and Hana pleaded not guilty.
Menendez and his wife are accused of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bribes – some of which took the form of gold bars – in exchange for Menendez’s official acts as a senator.
A spokesman for Menendez declined to comment on matters related to the trial. An attorney for the senator did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz argued before a panel of 12 jurors and six alternates in New York at the start of the trial last month that the New Jersey Democrat abused his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to “put greed first” and referred to the senior senator as “powerful” and “corrupt.”
In the defense’s opening statement, an attorney for Menendez, Ari Weitzman, said his client did not violate the law.
“There will not be a single tangible proof that the senator accepted a bribe. There is an innocent explanation for gold and money,” Weitzman said.
Menendez has served in the Senate since 2006. He stepped down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee shortly after he was indicted in September but resisted calls for his resignation.
Menendez previously faced a federal indictment when he was accused in 2015 of illegally accepting favors from a Florida ophthalmologist, allegations he denied. The case ended in a mistrial, with jurors unable to reach a unanimous verdict and prosecutors choosing not to proceed with a new trial.
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