NEW YORK – Sen. Bob Menéndez decided not to take a stand in his own defense against federal corruption charges, although he talked about it “at length” with his lawyers.
Menendez (DN.J.) told U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein on Wednesday afternoon that he would not testify, moments before his team of lawyers rested the defense case.
Prosecutors, who indicted him last fall, “failed” to prove their case, Menéndez told reporters as he emerged from a Manhattan federal courtroom.
The senator, accused of taking bribes to stop state and federal criminal proceedings and to help the Egyptian government obtain American military aid, called five witnesses this week after the government spent more than two months hearing people testify.
Menéndez, who is going on trial for the second time, said it “doesn’t make any sense to me” to give prosecutors another opportunity to summarize their case against him with him on the stand.
After a mistrial in a corruption case in 2017, he gave a victory speech before a New Jersey federal court that explained his decision not to testify at that time, using at least a similar reason. He said his testimony would have given prosecutors the chance to “remake their entire meritless case.”
Earlier this week, during legal arguments before the judge without jurors present, Menendez’s attorney, Adam Fee, appeared to get a preview of his team’s closing arguments.
“There is no direct evidence of the alleged schemes,” Fee said. “It’s just about the strength of the inferences.”
Prosecutors have spent the past two months outlining the basis for the inferences they hope jurors will draw to convict Menendez as “senator in action.”
They found more than half a million dollars in cash during a home search and linked Menendez and his wife to about $250,000 in gold bars, much of which was also found in the home. Menéndez’s wife, Nadine, has a health problem and is expected to be tried separately.
Prosecutors also have many text messages and emails, time-sensitive phone calls and evidence of meetings the senator had, including at least one meeting with an Egyptian diplomat that was surveilled by the FBI and another meeting described as “raw” for one to participate as soon as it ended.
But some evidence that prosecutors called “critical” was kept away from the jurors because of a form of immunity granted to members of Congress. Additionally, Menéndez’s defense team hopes jurors will nullify the testimony of one of the government’s key witnesses, a man who pleaded guilty to bribing Menendez but he has his own criminal record. They are also likely to point to other witnesses who interacted with Menéndez, who said they did not believe he pressured them during interactions that prosecutors say were part of the bribery schemes.
And hanging over the entire case is what the jurors think of the senator’s wife, Nadine.
Prosecutors say she acted as a go-between, Menéndez’s defense team says the couple lived separate lives and has evidence she was going behind his back.
Final discussions are expected to begin on Monday.
