Washington — Attorneys for Sen. Bob Menendez concluded calling witnesses on Wednesday, opting to not have the New Jersey Democrat take the stand in his personal protection as he fights allegations that he traded political favors for gold bars and money.
A handful of witnesses testified on his behalf, in comparison with the 30 witnesses known as by the prosecution in the course of the trial, which has thus far spanned eight weeks.
Menendez’s protection attorneys known as his sister and the sister of his spouse, Nadine Menendez, to testify on Monday as they sought to point out it was commonplace for the couple to maintain gold and huge quantities of money of their house.
When federal investigators executed a search warrant at Menendez’s house in June 2022, they discovered greater than $480,000 in money stashed in envelopes, coats, sneakers and baggage, in addition to 13 gold bars price greater than $100,000.
Menendez, who has pleaded not responsible, is charged with bribery, extortion, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and appearing as a overseas agent for Egypt. Nadine Menendez has additionally pleaded not responsible. Her trial was postponed till August as she recovers from breast most cancers surgical procedure.
The senator’s older sister, Caridad Gonzalez, advised jurors that their dad and mom and aunt had a apply of storing money at house after their household fled persecution in Cuba in 1951, earlier than Menendez was born. She known as the behavior “a Cuban factor.”
“Daddy all the time mentioned do not belief the banks,” Gonzalez mentioned. “For those who belief the banks, you by no means know what can occur, so you need to all the time have cash at house.”
Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg through Getty Photos
She recalled discovering a stash of money in a shoebox in Menendez’s house within the Nineteen Eighties.
However prosecutors undercut one of many factors made by Gonzalez after she testified that she requested her brother to assist a neighbor with an immigration problem. Prosecutors confirmed textual content messages between the senator and his sister that counsel he didn’t give that problem the identical remedy that prosecutors say the businessmen who bribed the couple bought.
The businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, are on trial with the senator. They’ve additionally pleaded not responsible.
Once they requested Menendez for assist, he allegedly pressured a U.S. Division of Agriculture official to guard Hana’s halal certification monopoly and interfered in a prison case in New Jersey involving Daibes, in line with prosecutors.
Russell Richardson, a forensic accountant, testified that Menendez withdrew about $400 in money nearly each few weeks from 2008 to 2022, totaling greater than $150,000.
The testimony was meant to bolster Menendez’s clarification that he withdrew 1000’s of {dollars} in money from his checking account over a long time due to his household’s expertise in Cuba.
Richardson testified throughout cross-examination that he didn’t discover any document of Menendez withdrawing $10,000 in money at one time. A few of the money seized from Menendez’s house was present in bundles of $10,000, and Daibes’ fingerprints had been discovered on a number of the envelopes containing the money.
A part of Menendez’s protection technique has been to pin the blame on his spouse, claiming the senator was unaware of his spouse’s monetary challenges and her dealings with the businessmen accused of bribing them.
Nadine Menendez’s youthful sister, Katia Tabourian, testified that her sister and the senator broke up in late 2018 as a result of her sister’s ex-boyfriend “was creating a variety of chaos in her relationship with the senator.” Menendez’s attorneys say the couple couldn’t have plotted collectively in the course of the pause of their relationship.
Tabourian confirmed that her sister locked her bed room closet, which Menendez’s attorneys mentioned he didn’t have a key to. Investigators discovered gold bars and money within the closet in the course of the 2022 search. Tabourian mentioned it was widespread for her household to provide money, gold and jewellery as items.
Jurors are anticipated to have the case by the top of subsequent week, following testimony from Hana’s witnesses and shutting arguments. Daibes’ authorized staff rested Wednesday with out presenting a protection.
—Ash Kalmar contributed reporting.