Menendez ‘put his power up for sale,’ prosecutor tells jurors

Prosecutors told the federal judge overseeing Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption trial in Manhattan that New Jersey’s senior senator has done so much wrong it would take at least five hours to sum it all up.

Monday, prosecutor Paul Monteleoni got started, telling jurors during closing arguments that Menendez trampled the public’s trust to please his wife and enrich himself, pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes over a five-year period in exchange for disrupting both state and federal criminal prosecutions of friends and helping them land lucrative business deals.

Monteleoni argued that Menendez, a Democrat, abused his powerful position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and put American security at risk by acting in the interest of Egypt and Qatar so that those countries would invest in the business ventures of Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, his codefendants and friends.

Menendez “put his power up for sale,” Monteleoni said, echoing Prosecutor Lara Pomerantz’s opening arguments.

“It wasn’t enough for him to be one of the most powerful people in Washington,” Monteleoni added. “It wasn’t enough for him to be entrusted by the public with the power to approve billions of dollars of U.S. military aid to foreign countries. It wasn’t enough for him to have the ability to recommend who the president nominates to be the chief federal law enforcement officer for New Jersey. No. Robert Menendez wanted all that power, but he also wanted to use it to pile up riches for himself and his wife. So Menendez sold the power of his office.”

Menendez, 70, has denied the accusations against him, refused to step down, and filed to run for reelection in November for the seat he has held since 2006.

Defense attorneys have offered multiple explanations for the gold bars, $67,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible, $486,000 in cash, and other valuables that FBI agents found in the senator’s Englewood Cliffs home during a June 2022 search, as well as the swanky dinners, Formula 1 race tickets, mortgage payments, a “sham job” for the senator’s wife, Nadine, and more that prosecutors tied to Daibes, Hana, and codefendant Jose Uribe.

Menendez’s attorneys have blamed Nadine Menendez for some of the riches, saying she made deals and took valuables without the senator’s knowledge. They insisted other riches were family heirlooms, gifts from generous friends, and cash stashed by a senator distrustful of banks.

But Monteleoni urged jurors to reject those explanations, saying Nadine Menendez acted as a “go-between” to accept the bribes and broker the deals — but that the senator was well aware of the schemes.

“You don’t get to be the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by being clueless,” Monteleoni said.

Monteleoni made it through two hours of arguments before Judge Sidney H. Stein dismissed jurors for the night. The prosecutor laid out what he called “a clear pattern of corruption” by marching methodically through the 18-count indictment to tell the jury why they should convict the defendants of each.

He used the couple’s own words to prove his points, again showing jurors texts between the senator and his wife communicating about U.S. military aid and arms sales to Egypt and meetings with foreign officials soon after the couple began dating in 2018.

“Why is he texting this to his girlfriend? Why is Nadine getting involved in anything about $99 million of tank ammunition?” Monteleoni said of one text exchange.

“She was keeping him in the loop every step of the way,” he added.

He reminded jurors that investigators had connected much of the gold and cash to Daibes and Hana through fingerprints, DNA, and serial numbers — and that Menendez multiple times searched online for the price of gold within minutes or hours of meeting Daibes.

“All this stuff about Nadine having family gold is a distraction,” Monteleoni said.

Bribery law requires prosecutors to prove a public official took something of value, had a corrupt intent, and promised an official act in exchange, he said.

“You only need one thing of value, but you have one after another after another,” he said.

Menendez didn’t have to follow through on his promises for the valuable to be a bribe, Monteleoni added.

“The promise is enough,” he said.

He also listed example after example of “secrecy and lies” he said proves the couple’s corrupt intent, such as Menendez exhorting his wife not to put things in writing and amending his annual Senate disclosure forms to include the gold bars as the couple shopped for multimillion-dollar mansions last year.

“When Menendez hears Nadine will get paid, he swings into action again and again,” he said.

Monteleoni reminded jurors that even the senator’s own staff thought his actions were “weird.”

But, the prosecutor said, “Menendez wasn’t acting weirdly. He was acting corruptly. He was acting like a bribed man. Because that’s what he was.”

Monteleoni is expected to wrap up his closing argument Tuesday morning, and attorney Adam Fee, who is part of Menendez’s defense team, is set to deliver his summation Tuesday as well. Jurors could begin deliberations as soon as Wednesday afternoon.

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