Liam Conner
One day after the judges held the one kilo gold bars seized from Senator Bob Menendez’s home in their own hands, they will hear more from the FBI agent who led the search of the New Jersey Democrat’s home in June 2022.
Menéndez’s lawyers will continue questioning FBI agent Aristotelis Kougemitros on Friday.
Kougemitros told prosecutors Thursday that his team mostly avoided the FBI’s “flashy” traps when they arrived at the two-story Englewood Cliffs home that Menendez shares with his wife, Nadineto execute a search warrant.
“We came with unmarked vehicles, which we normally have, but we had fewer of them,” he said. “We didn’t have a large group, which we normally have for a search. We used discreet markings that identified us. We were aware that we were searching the house and executing a search warrant for a United States senator.”
No one was home at the time of the search, so the group of agents punched in the code for the garage, where a black Mercedes-Benz convertible was parked, and entered the house, he said. The FBI agent noted that they had to call a locksmith to open several doors in the house, including those to the master bedroom and its closets.
Kougemitros said the FBI was authorized to search several items of value and seized 52 items from the house, including cellphones, gold, cash and jewelry.
On the floor of one of the closets, they found a one-kilogram gold bar inside a Ziploc bag wrapped in a paper towel, he testified. In the same closet they discovered a safe containing loose cash, envelopes with cash, seven one-ounce gold bars and another one-kilogram gold bar, according to Kougemitros. Money was also found in other parts of the house, he said, recalling finding $100,000 in a backpack and tens of thousands of dollars inside boots and jacket pockets.
“The amount of money that we began to discover was so massive that I instructed the team that we would no longer photograph any of the money; we would be seizing the money because I believed it was potentially evidence of a crime,” he said.
There was so much money, the FBI agent said, that he called for backup. Two FBI agents from Manhattan “brought two money-counting machines,” Kougemitros said.
In total, the FBI seized 11 30-gram gold bars, two one-kilogram gold bars and $486,461 in cash, he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz repeatedly drew attention to the cash and gold bars that were found in the couple’s home in her opening remarks Wednesday, claiming they were given to the senator by New Jersey businessmen as bribes in exchange for political favors.
On Thursday, while cross-examining Kougemitros, she showed the jury a photo taken during the search for an envelope that contained $7,400 in cash. The envelope was embossed with Fred A. Daibes and an address in Edgewater, New Jersey.
Menendez is on trial alongside Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer, and Wael Hana, owner of halal meat company IS EG Halal, both accused of bribing the senator. All three pleaded not guilty.
A third indicted businessman, José Uribe, pleaded guilty in March and confessed to having bought Menendez’s wife a $60,000 Mercedes convertible to influence the senator. Uribe will testify during the trial.
On Thursday, Adam Fee, Menendez’s lawyer, sought to sow doubt about whether the senator had access to the master bedroom closet where the safe and gold bars were found, questioning the FBI agent about the location of a blue blazer that prosecutors are connecting. for Menendez.
On Wednesday, another of Menendez’s lawyers, Avi Weitzman, said Menendez did not have a key to the locker.
—Nathalie Nieves contributed reporting.
