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Bob Menendez Jury Ends First Day of Bribe-Case Deliberations
(Bloomberg) -- Jurors at the New York corruption trial of US Senator Bob Menendez ended their first day of deliberations Friday without a verdict on whether the New Jersey Democrat engaged in bribery and extortion and acted as an agent of Egypt.
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After a two-month trial, the panel spent about three hours weighing the case against Menendez and two businessmen accused of bribing him, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes. Earlier, US District Judge Sidney Stein completed his instructions to jurors on how to apply the law to the case. The panel will resume their deliberations Monday.
Prosecutors say Menendez, 70, sold his office to help the businessmen who sought his help. FBI agents seized 13 gold bars, nearly $500,000 in cash and a Mercedes Benz at Menendez’s house in 2022 — evidence that formed the backbone of the trial in Manhattan federal court.
Menendez, who didn’t testify at the trial, has denied wrongdoing. His lawyers claimed the senator’s actions were lawful and good for his constituents, while blaming Menendez’s wife, Nadine, for keeping her husband in the dark about her financial problems and gifts she received. She was also charged, but will be tried later because she’s being treated for breast cancer.
The judge’s instructions spelled out the complex analyses that jurors must undertake before ruling on the 18 charges, including 16 against Menendez. He is charged with bribery, extortion, conspiracy, honest services wire fraud, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent of Egypt.
Jurors, for instance, must determine whether the senator engaged in a quid pro quo, or this for that, with corrupt intent. They also must decide if he took official action, or promised to do so.
“A quid pro quid must be explicit,” Stein said.
On the Egypt charge, the judge said, jurors may decide if “it is fair to draw the conclusion whether an individual is not acting independently, but is instead acting as an agent of a foreign principal.”
On Thursday, prosecutor Daniel Richenthal ended more than three hours of arguments.
Prosecutors said the three-term senator corruptly helped Egypt to secure US military aid and sensitive information; tried to protect an Egyptian monopoly that Hana secured to inspect meat bound for Egypt; sought to influence a US indictment in New Jersey of Daibes; and acted to sway New Jersey criminal probes of people close to Jose Uribe, a former insurance broker. He pleaded guilty and testified against Menendez.
‘Egregious’ Disclosure
In his argument, Richenthal reminded jurors that Menendez had disclosed in May 2018 the number of US and Egyptian citizens working at the American embassy in Cairo. Menendez passed the information through his then-girlfriend Nadine Arslanian, whom he married in 2020.
This “egregious” disclosure of nonpublic information is “devastating proof of guilt,” Richenthal said. Defense lawyers say that the information had previously been published and therefore wasn’t non-public.
Earlier on Thursday, jurors heard summations from a lawyer for Daibes, a prominent developer accused of funneling gold and cash to Menendez to manipulate the appointment of the top federal prosecutor.
The US also alleges that Menendez introduced Daibes to Heritage Advisors, a London-based firm led by a member of the Qatari royal family. In May 2022, Heritage had signed a letter of intent to invest $95 million in a Daibes project to build four high-rise towers in Edgewater, New Jersey.
Daibes attorney Cesar DeCastro said that the investment came after extensive due diligence by Heritage and had nothing to do with bribery.
The case is US v. Menendez, 23-cr-490, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Updates to reflect deliberations ended without a verdict)
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