Senate. Bob Menendez was found guilty on all counts in his federal corruption trial on Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors in New York allege the New Jersey Democrat received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in cash, gold bars, mortgage payments and more in exchange for the senator’s political influence. The three indicted New Jersey businessmen, along with the governments of Egypt and Qatar, are said to have received it. Two of those co-defendants, Val Hanna and Fred Taips, were convicted of all the charges they faced.
The jury deliberated for about 13 hours over three days.
Menendez pleaded guilty to 16 federal charges including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction.
Prosecutors said Menendez, 70, “put his power up for sale” in exchange for gold, envelopes stuffed with cash, checks for no-show work and a Mercedes-Benz convertible. Prosecutors said the FBI found gold bars and more than $400,000 stashed throughout his home, including in jackets and shoes.
“It’s not enough that he’s one of the most powerful people in Washington,” federal prosecutor Paul Monteleoni said during his closing arguments on July 8. “Robert Menendez wanted all that power, and he wanted to use it. Wealth for himself and his wife.”
Meanwhile, the defense said all of the actions in the indictment fell within the scope of Menendez’s standing and that prosecutors failed to prove he accepted any bribes.
During his closing argument, defense attorney Adam Fee derided the government’s case as “cherry-picked nonsense” and accused prosecutors of “misrepresenting” the facts.
“The only honest verdict I can submit here is to acquit him on every count,” Fee told the jury on July 9. “His actions are legal, normal and good for the country.”
Menendez declined to testify in his own defense. As he left court after the defense rested its case on July 3, he told reporters, “In my view, the government has failed to prove every aspect of its case.”
He said he expects his lawyers to present a “convincing and powerful case” and that the jury will find him not guilty.
Prosecutors told the jury that Menendez promised to use his power to help Egypt. According to the indictment, the arrangement was brokered by Hana, a New Jersey businessman and friend of Menendez’s wife, Nadine, who prosecutors said enlisted the senator’s help to protect the halal meat monopoly.
Menendez is also accused of receiving a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for help that the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said sabotaged a case.
In the spring of 2019, another New Jersey businessman, Jose Uribe, who pleaded guilty in the case, gave Nadine $15,000 in cash as a down payment on the car, prosecutors said. He texted Menendez, “Congratulations. We are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes,” prosecutors said. Uribe kept making the monthly payments, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the senator promised Taibs, a third businessman, that he would intervene in Taibs’ federal prosecution and help the Qatari government by supporting a Senate resolution praising the country.
Tepes’ fingerprints were found on cash envelopes found at Menendez’s home, and serial numbers on gold bars traced Tepes and Hana, prosecutors said.
During two months of testimony, jurors heard his sister explain why Menendez was caught with the money stuffed into his embroidered congressman’s jacket: “It’s a Cuban thing,” Caridad Gonzalez said.
The defense told jurors that Menendez and his wife, the defendant in the case, lived separately and that she had money problems from her husband.
Daibes and Hana have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Uribe pleaded guilty and testified against three defendants during the trial.
Menendez’s wife pleaded guilty to the charges and will be tried separately in August due to her failing health. She is battling stage 3 breast cancer, the senator revealed in mid-May at the start of the hearing.
Menendez, who has served as a senator from New Jersey since 2006, is the first member of Congress to be charged with conspiracy by a public official to act as a foreign agent.
In June, he filed to get on the U.S. Senate ballot in New Jersey as an independent candidate.
He refused to resign despite stepping down as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee following the initial allegations in September 2023.
This is the second time the senator has been accused of corruption. The 2015 indictment ended in a mistrial in 2018 after a jury failed to reach a verdict on all counts.
