Catherine Rusoff
After a jury was chosen at the federal bribery trial of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, opening statements were expected to begin Wednesday afternoon as prosecutors tried to convince a jury that the longtime powerful Democrat was willing to sell his influence to benefit three businessmen in exchange for money, gold bars and a luxury car.
The three-term New Jersey senator has insisted since his arrest that he is not guilty of charges that he used his influence to help three New Jersey businessmen, including providing favors to the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
Prosecutors say the men gave gifts to Menendez and his wife to ensure Menendez would help them.
Judge Sidney Stein gave a jury that had been selected earlier in the afternoon initial instructions on the law before breaking for lunch. The 12 jurors and six substitutes were chosen in three days.
Stein said the first witness will testify Wednesday if there is time, and that it will take a few weeks for the government to present all of its witnesses. During jury selection on Tuesday, Stein listed dozens of potential witnesses in the case, including former and current U.S. lawmakers and officials.
The judge ruled that a psychiatrist who evaluated Menendez will not be allowed to testify in your corruption trial about “two significant traumatic events” in his life that his lawyers say explain the hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash investigators found in his home. He will allow an accountant to testify about the senator’s cash flow.
Menéndez, 70, is on trial in Manhattan federal court with two of the businessmen. A third pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the other defendants. Menéndez’s wife is scheduled to stand trial in July due to health problems.
For the senator, the trial represents the second time he has been criminally accused in a Federal Court in the last decade.
In 2017, a federal jury deadlocked on corruption charges brought in New Jersey and prosecutors did not attempt to retry him. Those charges were unrelated to the current indictment of Menendez, who held the powerful position of chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before he was forced from the post after the new charges were revealed last fall.
Since the initial indictment in September, prosecutors have expanded the charges and allegations into three superseding indictments, bringing the total number of criminal charges against Menéndez to 16.
Menéndez is being tried by Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer, and businessman Wael Hana. They pleaded not guilty.
One indictment alleges that Daibes handed over gold bars and cash to Menendez and his wife so the senator could help him secure a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund, acting in a manner favorable to the Qatari government.
The indictment also claims that Menéndez did things that benefited Egyptian authorities in exchange for bribes from Hana, while the businessman secured a lucrative deal with the Egyptian government to certify that imported meat met Islamic dietary requirements.
Menéndez has said he will not seek re-election on the Democratic ticket this fall, although he has not ruled out the possibility of running as an independent.
