New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor testifies Sen. Bob Menendez sought to discuss real estate developer’s criminal case

New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor testified Wednesday in the bribery trial of Sen. Bob Menendez that the Democrat sought to discuss the prosecution of a New Jersey real estate developer with him before recommending him for the job after President Biden won elections in 2020.

U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger’s revelation, in testimony that will continue Thursday, represented the second time in the five-week trial in Manhattan federal court that a top law enforcement figure said Menendez tried to talk about a criminal case affecting a New Jersey businessman.

Last week, a former New Jersey attorney general testified that Menendez confronted him twice about a pending criminal case affecting a New Jersey businessman, and both times the attorney general refused to discuss the matter.

Prosecutors say trying to intervene in criminal cases was one of the ways Menendez tried to reward businessmen who paid bribes to him and his wife. gold bars, tens of thousands of dollars in cash and a car.

When prosecutors charged Menendez, his wife and three businessmen last fall, they said in court documents that Menendez recommended Sellinger as U.S. attorney because he believed he could influence Sellinger to protect Fred Daibes, a prominent New Jersey real estate developer and longtime friend date he faced criminal charges.

Daibes is on trial with Menendez, along with another businessman, Wael Hana. All three pleaded not guilty. A third businessman, José Uribecompleted four days on the witness stand on Wednesday after pleading guilty and agreeing to testify against the others.

A trial for Nadine Menéndez was postponed Wednesday until at least August, depending on the pace of her recovery from breast cancer surgery.

Sellinger, who has held New Jersey’s top federal law enforcement job since December 2021, is not accused of any wrongdoing in the case against Menendez.

He testified that he had been friends with Menendez since the early 2000s, when he began contributing to his congressional campaigns and held political fundraisers for him.

The relationship grew over time, to the point where Menendez and Sellinger increasingly dined together and played golf with their children, and Sellinger came to believe that Menendez would nominate him to be New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor if Hillary Clinton won the presidential race. 2016. said.

When Menendez got married in the fall of 2020, Sellinger attended the wedding, where he also saw Daibes, Sellinger testified.

After Biden won the 2020 election, Sellinger said he met with Menendez in his Washington office to talk about the U.S. attorney position. He said he shared his vision for the office.

Then, he said, Menéndez mentioned that Daibes had a criminal case and that the senator believed he “was being treated unfairly.”

“And he said he hoped that if I became U.S. attorney, I would look at this carefully,” Sellinger recalled.

Sellinger said he told Menendez he knew nothing about it and that he planned to carefully review all cases in his office.

The next day, Sellinger said, he called Menendez after remembering that he had handled an adverse lawsuit against Daibes while he was in private practice and that, as a result, the Justice Department might decide to recuse him from anything involving the Daibes.

Sellinger recalled that Menéndez said he understood, but days later the senator told him that the White House wanted several potential candidates to be offered for nomination and he had decided he would no longer nominate Sellinger.

When Sellinger learned a few months later that the person who was in line to get the job was no longer going to get it, he said he reached out to Menéndez to remind him he was still interested.

He said he then received a call from a political consultant who had been director of Menendez’s New Jersey office and was asked about his plans for the U.S. attorney’s office if he got the job. Sellinger said he repeated what he told Menéndez, including that he hoped he could be removed from the Daibes case as a result of his work on the case that affected him.

Still, Sellinger said Menendez told him in the spring that he was recommending he be nominated for the position.

After taking office, Sellinger said, he referred his potential conflict of interest regarding Daibes to the Justice Department in Washington on his first day as U.S. attorney and was told the following week that he should have nothing to do with the case. .

Three months later, he said, the political consultant asked to have lunch with him and, after a general conversation about work, said he wanted to ask him a question.

“I said, ‘Let me stop you there,'” Sellinger testified. “As U.S. Attorney, I am not authorized to have any conversations regarding the official business of the office with any federal elected officials or their representatives.”

Sellinger said he called Menéndez in spring 2022 to invite him to speak at a public ceremony celebrating Sellinger’s appointment as U.S. attorney.

“He said, ‘I’ll pass,’” Sellinger recalled.

Sellinger said the senator then said, “The only thing worse than not having a relationship with the United States attorney is people thinking you have a relationship with the United States attorney and you don’t.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz asked him what he understood Menendez was saying.

“We no longer had a relationship,” Sellinger said.

In cross-examination that will continue Thursday morning, defense attorney Avi Weitzman asked Sellinger if Menendez had ever asked him to do anything inappropriate in the past 20 years.

“I never believed he was asking me to do anything inappropriate or unethical,” Sellinger responded.