US Senator Menendez convicted at corruption trial, cementing political
downfall
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[July 17, 2024]
By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. Senator Bob Menendez was convicted on Tuesday
on all 16 criminal counts he faced including bribery at his corruption
trial in Manhattan federal court, completing the once-powerful New
Jersey Democrat's dramatic downfall.
Senior Democrats including U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and
fellow New Jersey Senator Cory Booker quickly called on Menendez, who
has served in the Senate since 2006 and avoided conviction in a prior
2017 corruption trial due to a deadlocked jury, to resign from the
chamber.
Jurors began their deliberations on Friday and met for more than 12
hours over three days before reaching their verdict in a trial that had
taken nine weeks. Menendez, 70, had pleaded not guilty to the charges,
which also included illegally acting as an agent of the Egyptian
government, obstruction of justice, wire fraud and extortion.
Menendez remained defiant after the verdict, telling reporters outside
the courthouse that he would appeal, though he did not answer questions
about resignation. Menendez previously resisted calls from fellow
Democrats to quit after he was charged in September.
"I have never violated my public oath. I have never been anything but a
patriot of my country and for my country," Menendez, who stepped down as
chair of the influential U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee upon
being charged, told reporters. "I have never, ever been a foreign
agent."
The trial centered on what federal prosecutors called several
overlapping bribery schemes in which the senator and his wife Nadine
Menendez accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars
and car and mortgage payments from three businessmen who wanted his
help.
In exchange for bribes, Menendez helped steer billions of dollars in
American aid to Egypt, where one of the businessman, Wael Hana, had ties
to government officials, according to prosecutors. Menendez also was
accused of seeking to influence criminal probes involving two other
businessmen, Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe.
"This was politics for profit," Damian Williams, the top federal
prosecutor in Manhattan, told reporters. "His years of selling his
office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end."
After the jury's foreperson read the verdict, Menendez rested his elbows
on the table, clasped his hands together and stared straight ahead. Hana
and Daibes, co-defendants in the trial, were also convicted on all
counts they faced. Uribe pleaded guilty and testified as a prosecution
witness.
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein set Menendez's sentencing for Oct. 29,
a week before the Nov. 5 election in which he is running as an
independent in a bid for another six-year term in the Senate, but is
considered a long shot to win.
Pressure mounted on Menendez to resign from office.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said that if Menendez
declines to resign, the Senate should vote to expel him. Murphy would
name a replacement for Menendez if the senator resigns.
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U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) exits Federal Court following
his bribery trial in connection with an alleged corrupt relationship
with three New Jersey businessmen, in New York City, U.S., July 16,
2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
"This is a dark, painful day for the people of New Jersey," Booker
said. "Representing people in Congress demands the public's trust.
When any elected official violates that trust, it is a betrayal of
the oath we take to serve the people who've elected us."
A FIXTURE IN WASHINGTON
Menendez has been a fixture in Washington for more than three
decades. He has represented New Jersey in the Senate since 2006
after previously serving 13 years in the U.S. House of
Representatives. Prior to that, he served in the New Jersey
legislature and as a mayor.
Before being charged, Menendez was not only a powerful Senate
committee chair but an important ally in President Joe Biden's
efforts to reassert U.S. influence abroad, rally support and money
to help Ukraine, and stall advances by China.
Tuesday's conviction handed a victory to the U.S. Justice Department
as well as to Williams, who has made weeding out public corruption a
priority.
During the trial, jurors were handed some of the gold bars that
federal agents seized from the New Jersey home the senator shared
with his wife. Agents also found more than $480,000 of cash,
including some stuffed in envelopes inside a jacket bearing the
senator's name.
Prosecutors said that after Hana gave Nadine Menendez a "sham job"
paying $10,000 a month, the senator pressured a U.S. Agriculture
Department official to stop scrutinizing a monopoly that Egypt had
awarded Hana's company to certify halal meat for export.
Menendez was also accused of trying to pressure law enforcement to
lay off Daibes, a real estate developer, and Uribe, an insurance
broker who testified that he bought Nadine Menendez a $60,000
Mercedes-Benz in exchange for her husband's help.
Nadine Menendez is set to be tried separately. She did not attend
her husband's trial after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
The senator's 2017 mistrial in New Jersey was on a narrower set of
allegations.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
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