Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat, went on trial in Manhattan federal court docket Monday, accused of accepting bribes of gold and money to make use of his affect to ship favours that will assist three New Jersey businessmen.
Menendez, 70, sat together with his attorneys and listened as Decide Sidney H Stein informed a number of dozen potential jurors in regards to the expenses towards Menendez and two of the businessmen.
The choose informed them the “sitting US senator from the state of New Jersey” had been charged in a conspiracy during which he allegedly “agreed to just accept bribes and accepted bribes”.
After he warned them that the trial was anticipated to last as long as seven weeks, Stein let jurors increase their arms in the event that they believed they might not serve for that size of time. Then, he took them separately right into a separate room to ask them why.
![Wael Hana, co-defendant of Bob Menendez, arrives at federal court in New York on Monday. Photo: Bloomberg](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/05/14/8fd3e189-d6d4-4e76-adc6-8c1599d560b0_a66cec46.jpg)
Menendez didn’t converse to reporters who had been saved behind barricades as he entered a safety pavilion the place everybody getting into the courthouse is scanned.
Opening statements had been potential, however unlikely, earlier than Tuesday for a trial that has already despatched the senator’s political stature tumbling. After expenses had been introduced in September, he was pressured out of his highly effective submit as chairman of the Senate International Relations Committee.
The three-term senator has introduced he is not going to be in search of re-election on the Democratic ticket this autumn, though he has not dominated out operating as an unbiased.
![Fred Daibes, one of three businessmen named as co-defendants with Bob Menendez. Photo: AP](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/05/14/5059ad13-ddcb-4e10-8d87-53c197c3daec_ed18453d.jpg)
It’s the second corruption trial for Menendez within the final decade. The earlier prosecution on unrelated expenses ended with a deadlocked jury in 2017.
In addition to expenses together with bribery, extortion, fraud and obstruction of justice, Menendez is also charged with performing as a overseas agent of Egypt.
Amongst proof his attorneys must clarify are gold bars value greater than US$100,000 and over US$486,000 in money present in a raid two years in the past on his New Jersey house, together with cash stuffed within the pockets of clothes in wardrobes.
The Democrat’s spouse, Nadine Menendez, was additionally charged within the case, however her trial has been postponed for well being causes. She continues to be anticipated to be a serious determine. Prosecutors say Nadine Menendez usually served as a conduit between the boys paying the bribes and Menendez.
![Menendez and his wife Nadine Menendez at the federal courthouse in New York in September. Photo: AP](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/05/14/e2ea4d51-c4ee-462a-8d4e-e9cec70bf3ea_bba9fc5c.jpg)
The senator’s attorneys in court docket papers have mentioned they plan to clarify that Menendez had no information of a few of what occurred as a result of she saved him at midnight.
The indictment additionally mentioned Menendez did issues benefiting Egyptian officers in trade for bribes from Hana because the businessman secured a useful take care of the Egyptian authorities to certify that imported meat met Islamic dietary necessities.
In pleading responsible a number of weeks in the past, businessman Jose Uribe admitted shopping for Menendez’s spouse a Mercedes-Benz to get the senator’s assist to affect legal investigations involving his enterprise associates.