Washington – Jurors are deliberating for the second day New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez attempted bribery after they left Friday night without getting a verdict.
Jurors posted a note Friday morning asking whether a verdict of not guilty on count one required unanimity.
The trial, which was originally expected to last six weeks, has now entered its tenth week. Menendez pleaded not guilty to 16 felony counts, including obstruction of justice, acting as a foreign agent, bribery, extortion and honest services wire fraud. He is accused of using his political influence to benefit two foreign governments, while helping three New Jersey businessmen in return for bribes that included piles of cash, gold bars, mortgage payments and convertible Mercedes-Benz cars.
prosecutor argue Menendez used his influence as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to covertly benefit Egypt and pressure Agriculture Department officials to protect the Egyptian halal certification monopoly granted to businessman Wael Hana, who paid the senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez.
They also accused Menendez of trying to overturn state and federal criminal cases involving former insurance broker Jose Uribe and real estate developer Fred Daibes. Menendez helped Daibes secure a lucrative investment deal with Qatar at the same time, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, tried to obstruct the investigation after they were first charged by characterizing some of the alleged bribe payments as loans, prompting the former attorney to make false statements to prosecutors.
The trial of Nadine Menendez is postponed until August as she recovers from breast cancer surgery. He also pleaded not guilty.
Hana and Daibes, who also pleaded not guilty, were tried by senators.
Uribe pleaded guilty earlier this year and testified at the trial that he questioned Menendez immediately for help, a month after he told Nadine Menendez $15,000 in cash in the restaurant parking lot for the downpayment on the $60,000 Mercedes. Uribe paid off the car until June 2022 — the same month the FBI searched the Menendezes’ home and found more than $480,000 in cash and gold bars worth more than $100,000.
An envelope containing Daibes’ fingerprints or DNA seized from Menendez’s home was worth $82,500, Megan Rafferty, a forensic accountant at the FBI, testified earlier this month. Almost the same amount of cash that was deposited in February 2018 or later was found in an envelope in Menendez’s basement or his home office, he said.
From 2018 to mid-2022 — the time frame of the alleged plan — Menendez withdrew $55,000 in cash from an account at Senate Federal Credit Union, according to Rafferty, who said the average withdrawal was about $400. There are no bank or credit card records showing a $10,000 withdrawal. – the amount of cash found in several envelopes at home.
Russell Richardson, a forensic accountant who analyzed Menendez’s cash withdrawals on behalf of the defense, testified that the senator took out about $400 twice a month between 2008 and 2022. The withdrawals totaled more than $150,000, he said.
After his indictment, Menendez explained the cash stockpile was a years-old habit stemming from his family’s experience in Cuba, before he was born.
The senator did not testify in his own defense. His lawyer assert the government is prosecuting its legislative activities. She tried to blame her husband, saying that she had financial problems that she didn’t tell her husband about.
This story has been updated to correct details from jury records. Alice Gainer and Ash Kalmar contributed reporting.
